


The Stolen Earth Incident

by MiladyDragon



Series: Dragon-Verse: Series Three [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Dragons, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Daleks - Freeform, Language, Minor Character Death, Multi, Temporary Character Death - Jack Harkness, Violence, perceived character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-24
Updated: 2017-03-09
Packaged: 2018-09-19 14:05:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 54
Words: 88,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9444644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiladyDragon/pseuds/MiladyDragon
Summary: The Earth has been stolen.  There are twenty-six other planets in the sky.  The Daleks are raining death down from the sky.  It's the end of the world.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here it is, the Dragon-Verse version of "Stolen Earth" and "Journey's End". There are a few things I need to say about this story, just because there might be some confusion about certain events.
> 
> First of all, the Doctor Who episode, "Turn Left", never happened in this universe, so Rose and Donna have never met. Secondly, this is the first time major events spill over into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, because the Daleks can't steal the planet without Nick Fury knowing about it. Thirdly, events from the Dragon-Verse stories during The Year of the Toclafane apply here, in that the Doctor is not happy with Jack and Ianto about executing the Master. 
> 
> If anything else comes up, I'll let you know.

 

**_30 April 2012_ **

**_Alternate Earth (Pete’s World)_ **

**_(A Few Steps into the Future from our Universe)_ **

****

There was far more activity in the lab than Rose had ever remembered seeing, all of it tinged with the slight edge of panic.

She made her way through the bustling scientists that had been involved with the Dimension Cannon project, her eyes searching for the man in charge.  She’d been awakened from a not-so-sound sleep by the very early morning call, the voice on the other end of the line having her out of bed and dressed in less than ten minutes, and then at Torchwood’s main science facility in near to thirty.  The woman who’d contacted her hadn’t given her any details, only that she was needed immediately, and that it was extremely serious. 

Rose could understand the lack of detail; after all, the Dimension Cannon was above Top Secret, and even though the phone lines were as secured as they could be, there was always a chance that someone could have hacked through the firewalls that protected their communications.  They couldn’t risk word of the project to get out. There were a lot of unscrupulous people out there, and Rose didn’t want any more damage done to the dimensional walls than had already been found.

What was causing the damage, no one seemed to know.

Rose had a gut feeling that it had to do with the stars going out.  The darkness was getting worse and worse as the nights went by, and they needed to discover just what was causing it.  She couldn’t prove what she knew in her heart, but Torchwood’s best minds were working on it.  Hopefully they’d work it out, and a way to stop it.

Who they really needed was the Doctor. 

The problem with that was the Doctor was on the other side of the dimensional barrier.  While Rose had hope that she’d get back there someday, at this point things were simply too precarious to take the chance of breaching the walls and going home.

Besides, the cannon didn’t work.

It wasn’t for lack of trying.  According to the lead scientist, the technology was sound…but for some reason the cannon simply wouldn’t function, and nothing they’d done had done the job.

“Ms Tyler!”

She veered toward the familiar voice.  Standing next to the main control computer was the project’s Director, Phillip Coulson, his usually reserved features pinched with what Rose just knew was worry.  Beside him, working at the main computer, was the Dimension Cannon’s lead scientist, Dr Ianto Jones, and he was moving faster than she’d ever seen him, his hands twisting over the controls frantically. 

If they were both in this early – although Dr Jones had a tendency to work all hours, simply because he often forgot to leave – then it had to be extremely serious.

“Doctor Coulson,” she greeted the project head, “what’s going on?”

“Sorry to get you out of bed like this,” he apologised, blue eyes serious behind his black-framed spectacles, “but we have an event…”

“The cannon just switched itself on,” Dr Jones butted him, sounding harried, “and we can’t pinpoint why.”

Rose regarded both of them closely, frowning.  “I thought the cannon didn’t work.”

“It didn’t,” Dr Coulson agreed.  “But for some reason it just started scanning.  We’re still trying to figure out just what happened.”

“The only thing I can see,” Dr Jones replied, without ceasing his work on the computer, “is that there’s been a massive power surge through the dimensional wall, cracking it badly.”  He finally turned to look at her, and Rose immediately knew what he was about to tell her was bad.  “From the readings we’ve been getting, it looks as if the walls between the individual dimensions are finally coming down…even the Void is gone.”

Rose’s heart felt as if it had stopped.  She might not have the education these two men had – after all, she’d been a shopgirl before meeting the Doctor, and everything she’d learned was either from him or what she’d decided to study for herself – but even she was aware just how bad this was.  “How long do we have before everything collapses?”

Coulson and Jones glanced at each other, and Rose could practically see the unspoken conversation passing between them.  They were both aware that she was from a dimension different from theirs, and a lot of the work they’d done on the project had been based on what Rose had seen in her travels with th e Doctor.  There had also been the research that Torchwood had done, including the original dimension jumpers that had been used to cross the Void.  It had all been at Rose’s urging in the beginning, through Peter Tyler, the current Director of Torchwood, that had instigated the current research, convincing him that having that sort of dimentional travel was only a good thing for business. 

Jones finally sighed.  “Not long,” the Welshman answered, his fingers finally still.  “Maybe a couple of days at the most.  And with time flowing faster here than in your original dimension…”  He shrugged.

“There’s a cascade effect,” Coulson added.  “The longer this goes on, the faster it happens.”

“Do you have any idea what’s causing it?”  It was at times like this that Rose _really_ needed the Doctor.   She had no doubt he’d have been able to figure this out and stop it.  “What can we do to stop it?”

Jones leaned back against the computer console, rubbing his eyes tiredly.  “The only way would be to find the source. From what I’ve been able to tell, it’s in a different dimension from ours...in fact, it’s your own home dimension from the readings we’re getting.  And the cannon seems to have centred on these particular people.”  He went back to the computer, typing in a few commands.

Two photos popped up on the screen, side-by-side. 

The first one was a woman, with red hair and strong features.  Rose liked her immediately, even though she’d never met her.  She looked as if she wouldn’t take any nonsense. 

The second was a man.  He had a handsome face, looking well-lived in, as if its owner had seen a lot of the world and it hadn’t treated him particularly well, yet he could still laugh about it.  He had short, sandy brown-blondish hair and eyes that Rose couldn’t decide what colour they were; blue…or maybe hazel…perhaps green.  He was wearing some sort of tactical gear, and had an actual quiver with arrows strapped to his back. 

“Do we know who they are?” she asked.

Jones shook his head.  “Even though the dimensional barriers are collapsing, we don’t have any way of accessing any records from their world.  However, the woman is currently in London, and the man in Cardiff.”

Rose chewed her lip, thoughts roiling through her brain.  Maybe the man was the Doctor?  Had he regenerated again?  But why the hell would be carrying around arrows?  The man resembled a soldier more than a Time Lord, so that wasn’t it. 

“We checked the records here in our dimension,” Coulson said, “and came up with two names:  Donna Noble and Clint Barton.  They’re both fairly ordinary, and this dimension’s Barton doesn’t have an archery hobby, so we really can’t extrapolate anything from their backgrounds here.”

Somehow, Rose didn’t think that archery was the ‘hobby’ of the other dimensional Clint Barton.

“Cardiff and London are both close,” Coulson pointed out.  “And, if the timelines are somehow connecting these two, then it stands to reason they’ll meet at some point.  All we need to do is find that point and be there when it’s time.”

“We need to figure out how to stop the dimensions from collapsing,” Jones said.

Rose nodded.  And she was willing to bet these two strangers would be in the thick of things.

Also, she knew the Doctor well enough by now, he’d be in the thick of things.

“I need to go and find the Doctor.”

Both men nodded in unison.  “We’ll make sure you have a way to contact us here,” Jones replied.  “We can use the cannon to centre you anywhere you need to go.”

“I’ll need to have you find the TARDIS,” she said.  “It shouldn’t be hard to do.”

Coulson didn’t look happy.  “Ms Tyler…Rose…if anything were to go wrong…”

“We still have to try.”  It wasn’t like she was thinking the same thing.  But she needed to find the Doctor, and she somehow felt that, locating him, she’d also locate these two others.

“Understood.” Coulson nodded once, sharply, accepting what she was saying.  They’d all been working on this project mostly on her say-so, and because her dad-double had ordered it, but everyone on the dimension cannon knew the first step was to have helped her find the Doctor.  Any other outcomes would have been a bonus.

Rose didn’t want to be in this dimension.  There was nothing for her here, except for her Mum, who’d gotten together with this different version of her dad and they’d even had a son together, leaving her behind.  Rose felt surplus to demands, and all she wanted to do was find the Doctor and travel with him again.

It had crossed her mind that she was being selfish.  Maybe the Doctor didn’t want her to come back to him…

No, she couldn’t think that.  She’d put the idea for this project in the correct ears, and it had all come to fruition.

It didn’t escape her that the only reason that the dimension cannon was even working was because the universe was ending, which really was par for the course in her mixed-up life. 

“How long before we can be ready for transfer?” she asked. 

“Two hours,” Jones answered promptly. 

“Then get things started.  I need to pick up a couple of things, then I’ll be ready to leave.”

It was time.  Rose was going back to her Doctor, although it wasn’t under the best circumstances. 

She was finally going home, to where she truly belonged.

 


	2. Chapter 2

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_Cardiff_ **

****

Ianto stood in the kitchen, making the first round of coffee for the day, obvious to the lack of noise made by a certain pteranodon who’d always come to visit him for her morning chocolate.

They’d finally decided to move Myfanwy to Ddraig Llyn, where the prehistoric creature could fly free.  Ianto missed her, but she’d seemed to love her new surroundings, and the dragon had introduced her to Rhiannon who’d promised to keep up with her chocolate snacks every day.  It was far overdue; keeping Myfanwy in the Hub had limited her, and Ianto was glad that she could finally be out all the time and them not having to worry that someone would catch a glimpse of her…or worse, take a pot-shot as she flew overhead.  The villagers would protect her in a way that Torchwood couldn’t.

Still, the dragon would miss his flying partner, but it was for the best.

He put the mugs on his tray, and then headed out into the Hub.  Ianto went to Toshiko’s station first, where his technical genius was working on something with their temporary employee, Clint Barton.  It looked as if there were various types of arrow schematics on Toshiko’s computer screen; together, the pair had already created three new types of arrows for the SHIELD archer, and Toshiko loved a challenge.

The dragon handed out the coffees, wishing them both a good morning…although he’d done that with Clint already, since the agent was currently staying in his and Jack’s spare room.  It was the least they could do for Clint, who was taking vacation time away from SHIELD to help out while they were down both Owen and Patrick. 

Toshiko gave him a smile, accepting the mug and setting down on a clear section of her workstation.  Clint took a big sip of his, humming as the caffeine began to hit his system.  “I can never get coffee like this in New York,” he sighed. 

“If you came to work for us,” Ianto said slyly, “you could have all the coffee you’d ever want.”

“You know Torchwood has the best perks,” Clint grinned.  “No pun intended.”

“Of course not.” Ianto didn’t even bother hiding his eye roll.

Clint had fit with in with the team, and the dragon was going to miss him when he went back to SHIELD.  It would be soon, as Owen was hoping to be back on duty in two weeks.  Their medic had developed an infection from this gunshot wound and it had taken him a bit longer to recover, but he’d had Diane looking out after him and making certain he didn’t overdo it.  She’d had to go back to back to Alaska before Owen was completely recovered, but she would be back; she’d already accepted a position with Torchwood that would start after the beginning of the year, when her contract with her current employer would run out.  She’d come to the conclusion that Owen meant too much to her after nearly losing him to stay away any longer, and was ready to come home.

“Talked to Patrick this morning,” Clint went on.  “Says he’s ready to come back to work whenever you want him.  I think his Mom’s driving him up the wall but he’s too afraid of her to say anything to her about it.”

Ianto laughed.  He’d had the pleasure of meeting Margaret Coulson-Delaware, and while on the outside she was that basic, motherly type that was popular on the telly – slightly plump, short, and with graying hair that was always in a neat chignon – she was possibly even scarier than her younger brother, Phil Coulson.  But then, he knew she’d once worked for the CIA as one of their most successful wetworks operatives, so that definitely coloured his perception of the woman.

Patrick wasn’t as lucky as Owen in his recovery, though.  It would be at least another month before he could return to work, and that would be for light duty only.  The bullet that had damaged his shoulder had been worse than Owen’s stomach wound, and he was going to need significant physical therapy before he would be ready for field work again. 

Ianto silently cursed John Hart and wished he’d fulfilled that vengeance vow he’d sworn on the man.

“Patrick gets antsy when he’s not active,” Ianto observed.  “I can imagine the ‘driving up the wall’ is on both sides.”

Clint barked out a laugh.  “You’re not wrong.”

“Maybe we should be offering Mrs Delaware a job instead,” Toshiko joked. 

“That would be bloody entertaining,” Rhys said as he joined them, taking his own mug from the tray.  “I just hope Mrs D never meets the Queen, cause those two would get along like a house on fire and Jack wouldn’t stand a chance against the pair of them!”

“Excuse me,” Jack butted in, also leaning forward and taking his coffee, his body pressing against Ianto’s side and almost distracting the dragon, “but Lizzie loves me.”

Rhys chortled.  “Of course she does! You can’t tell me that Her Majesty doesn’t think of you as one of her boys, Jack.  She and Patrick’s Mam would be mothering you to within an inch of your life!”

Ianto had been a witness to Mrs Delaware meeting Jack, and it had been hilarious, as the woman had decided that Jack had needed a motherly figure in his life and was determined to be that once she’d been told that Jack’s own mother was out of the picture.  Maggie might have been an assassin with an excellent kill record, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be the most terrifying parent _ever_.

The only person Ianto knew was worse was Francine Jones, and she’d had the excuse of that Year to explain her motherly excesses.

Jack smirked.  “Who wouldn’t want me as their son?  I’m intelligent, charming, have great taste in mates…”

He’d told Ianto what had happened between himself and his own mother, far in the future, and heard the double meaning in his mate’s words.  Ianto’s heart went out to Jack, for having lost that loving relationship over something that hadn’t been in his control. 

He did elbow Jack at his comment though, playing into his mate’s comment.  “I like to think I have the great taste,” he said dryly, giving Jack an answering smirk.

The slight darkness that had been hiding behind Jack’s blue eyes faded at Ianto’s words, and the dragon was glad he could have fended off any bad feelings the immortal might have had at the thoughts of his long lost and not-yet-born mother.  Jack’s arm went around Ianto’s waist and he leaned into his mate’s warmth.

“You know,” Clint drawled, “I’ve seen more P.D.A. in the month I’ve been here than in the entire time I’ve been with SHIELD.”

Toshiko giggled.

“You get used to it, mate,” Rhys answered, sounding resigned.  “We’ve just learned to ignore it.”

“I don’t,” the technician exclaimed, blushing slightly at her blurted admission.

“Tosh, love,” Rhys sighed, “we all know you’re a fangirl.”

“I think it’s sweet,” Deborah added as she walked by, several files in her hands as she headed toward the Tourist Office.  Ianto passed the young woman her own coffee as she passed, Deborah managing admirably to juggle the folders and the hot beverage as she made her way out of the main Hub, the alarms on the cog door blaring at her exit.

“Well, Deborah’s a hopeless romantic,” Rhys said.  “Have you all noticed that our favourite detective sergeant has been paying the Tourist Office ‘unofficial’ visits lately?” The air quotes were obvious without the Welshman having to actually make them.

“Deborah let Andy down easily,” Ianto replied.  “She told him that she wasn’t ready for any sort of relationship yet, what with University and all.  She did tell him to check back with her when she’d graduated.”

“She tell you that?” Toshiko asked, curious.

Ianto nodded.  “I asked her about it, because I’d noticed it too.  Apparently, Andy understood and was fine with it.”

“Andy Davidson is a true gentleman,” Jack proclaimed.  “If he’s still interested when Deborah is finished, he’ll ask again.”

“I think they’d be cute together,” Toshiko declared.

“Yeah, I’ve also seen more romance around here, too,” Clint said.  His tone was teasing, but there was something in his eyes that Ianto chalked up to yearning.

He was aware that Clint was in a relationship with Patrick’s Uncle Phil, but that a lot of the time it was long-distance.  The pair often went months without seeing each other, although ever since Patrick’s injury and Clint taking the time off to help out they’d actually spent more time together than usual.  Phil had been in Cardiff for about a week, and Ianto was well aware of just where Clint had spent his nights when Coulson was in town; after all, it had been apparent that their spare room hadn’t been slept in.  Ianto knew that Clint wished their relationship could be steadier, but that simply wasn’t in the cards.  SHIELD kept both men busy, and it would continue to do so.

“And the gossip,” Clint went on, grinning.  “Patrick claimed that he got the best gossip ever since he started here, but he couldn’t share any of it because it was over most of the security levels on the planet…”

When he’d volunteered to help out, the first thing Clint had done was to come to both Jack and Ianto and assured them that he wouldn’t be sticking his nose in where it didn’t belong.  Ianto hadn’t doubted that for a moment, knowing that the SHIELD agent had kept the knowledge that Ianto was a true dragon to himself, except for a verbal report to his superior, Nick Fury.  He hadn’t even confided in his own lover, which, while commendable, had to have been rough on the man.  But then, Phil Coulson kept secrets from Clint on a regular basis, due to his higher security level.  Clint had proved trustworthy, and Ianto had actually Named him a dragon-friend before he and Jack had left Ddraig Llyn after their mating.

He'd also slotted into a place on the team that neither Jack nor himself had even noticed they’d needed someone; an overwatch, someone to keep an eye out over the team as they worked.  It had only taken Ianto about a week and a half to get Clint trained up on procedures, and on their first callout with him he’d gone to the closest building and had taken his post on the roof, watching their backs.  He’d even come in handy once, when a Weevil had stumbled into a routine retrieval and had been so startled it had taken a swipe at Ianto with its claws.

It turned out that arrows were an excellent Weevil deterrent.

Yes, Ianto was indeed going to miss Clint when he went back to SHIELD.

“Well, people,” Jack clapped his hands together, “let’s get to work.  Toshiko, how’s the Predictor looking for today – “

Jack was interrupted when the ground began to shake.

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_Cardiff_ **

 

Ianto was thrown to the ground, but it wasn’t the impact that had his vision whiting out.

It was as if the Earth was screaming.

The dragon within him roared in agony, however his outer form did not change.  While he wasn’t completely connected to the planet, Ianto did have a certain sense of it, through the Earth Dragon’s song that lived within him.  Something was seriously wrong with the Earth itself, and the sensation of that wrongness flayed across his nerves like lightning.

The Rift was also twisting, and the usual rain-like patter of it changed, raging like a thunderstorm, and the dragon couldn’t even scream. 

As quickly as it began, the feelings faded back, until Ianto could open his eyes and move.

He was laying on the concrete floor, his head was in Jack’s lap, and his mate was stroking his face with shaking fingers.  Ianto blinked up at him, and the relief in his eyes battered at Ianto almost as strongly as the Earth’s pain, but not in the same way. 

“I’m alright,” he murmured, his throat sore.  He cleared it roughly, and said again, “I’m alright.”  He struggled to sit up, taking the support offered by Jack.  “What happened?”

“We’re not sure,” Jack answered, “but it affected Toshiko, as well.”  He jerked his head forward, and Ianto craned his neck, just making out Toshiko on the sofa, a blanket pulled up around her, Clint perched on the arm and watching her. 

“She okay?”

“She’s unconscious,” Clint answered.  “Rhys went up to check on Deborah – “

Jack’s head moved, and instinctively Ianto knew that someone was speaking on the comm, most likely Rhys.  Ianto vaguely wondered what had happened to his.

 Jack’s face suddenly paled.  “Everyone, wait here.”  He was up like a shot, running toward the cog door, the alarm sounding and making the pounding in Ianto’s head worse.

Ianto clambered to his feet, his balance off just enough to cause him to stagger as he made his way toward Toshiko’s station.  Something had caused that groundquake, but the dragon just knew it wasn’t an ordinary tremblor.  It hadn’t been caused by the Rift, of that he was certain; there had been no warning, and the Rift had only reacted after the shaking had started. 

He began pulling up various programs. “Clint, can you check the police frequencies and see what they’re saying?”

“You got it, boss,” he answered sharply. 

Ianto didn’t turn, but he could hear Clint’s boots against the concrete, heading toward Rhys’ desk where the police radio had been set up.  The sounds of panicked chatter echoed over the Hub, going faint as Clint turned the gain down. 

Must have been wider than just their area, then.

Cardiff had long been the foremost centre of weird in Wales, but Ianto had the feeling that there was more to it than that this time.

The sound of a phone ringing pulled Ianto’s attention away from the computer.  It was Toshiko’s mobile, and he picked it up, certain he knew just who it was.  “Hello, Kathy,” he answered, his eyes going back to the screen as he began to process what the readings were telling him.

_“It’s not DCI Swanson,”_ the unmistakable Welsh accent belonging to Andy Davidson said. 

Ianto’s heart froze.  “What’s wrong with Kathy?” he demanded.  If this had affected Kathy as well…

_“She just collapsed,”_ Andy said tersely.  _“I was calling to let Toshiko know, but as you’re answering her phone…do you know what the hell is going on?  The ground shakes, and then all those planets show up in the sky…”_

Ianto’s movements on the computer stilled.  Planets?  Was that what had had Jack rushing out of the Hub?  “I have no idea,” he confessed.  “I can hear the police band going nuts…”

_“Yeah, it’s pandemonium, mate.  But I can’t help thinking how much worse it is elsewhere, ‘cause you know we’re used to the weirdness around here…”_

Still, the public had to have been panicking…and Ianto would have been as well, if it weren’t for the fact that he was currently too busy to do just that at the moment.  “We’re working on it, Andy.  We’ll keep you posted, alright?”

_“And we’ll try to keep the city from exploding into chaos.”_

Andy didn’t even bother to say good-bye; he simply disconnected, and Ianto didn’t take offence to it.  He was busily dialling Alice’s number, knowing she was at work and hoping that whatever had knocked both Toshiko and Kathy down hadn’t affected his daughter…

There was no answer.

Shit.

Ianto hung up, and then attempted to call Rhiannon, already knowing what he’d be told once whoever heard the phone answered.

It was Johnny, and he sounded pissed off.

_“What the bloody hell is going on?”_ he demanded, not even bothering to ask who was on the line. 

“We don’t know,” Ianto answered truthfully.  “Rhiannon?”

_“Went down like a sack of potatoes.  David went to fetch the doctor.”_

“Both Toshiko and Kathy are unconscious, too.  I’m certain it’s affected Alice as well; she’s not answering her phone.” 

Johnny began to curse like only a Welshman could.  Ianto didn’t blame him at all.

Ianto was well and truly frightened now.  All four Great Dragon Friends had been affected by whatever had happened.  “Keep me posted, and I’ll do the same as soon as we figure out things.”

_“You got it.”_ Johnny sounded a bit calmer now.  Perhaps it was because someone was actually trying to do something…not that Ianto knew what to do.

He put the phone down on the desk, concentrating on what the sensors were telling him.  The shaking had apparently been planet-wide, which made sense.  What had happened had affected the entire planet, and had disabled the Great Dragon Friends.

That would also mean that the Great Dragons themselves were down.

Estelle was next, and Ianto was dialling before he even realised he was doing it.  “Are you alright?” he asked as soon as she answered.

_“Scared, but fine so far.”_ The witch was terrified, it was obvious, but she was keeping herself together.  _“Don’t worry about me, Ianto.  You and Jack get to work and fix this.”_

The dragon was touched by her certainty that they could, indeed, fix whatever the hell had happened.  “Stay inside, and I’ll call as soon as it’s safe.”

_“Take care, Ianto.”_  Estelle hung up, and Ianto had to put her out of his mind for the time being. 

He had work to do.

“All the reports coming in are saying that there are twenty-six new planets in the sky,” Clint said incredulously.  “I knew working with Torchwood was like the most insane roller coaster ride ever, but this…”

The cog door opened with its usual fanfare, and Jack, Deborah, and Rhys all entered, all three of them pale and obviously shell-shocked by what they’d seen.  If there were really new planets in the heavens, then Ianto could understand.

“Jack,” the dragon said, not able to keep the worry from his voice, “both Kathy and Rhiannon are also in the same shape as Toshiko, and I can’t reach Alice…”

He hadn’t thought it possible that Jack could have gotten any whiter, but his mate blanched.  He looked as if he was about to bolt, to go to Alice’s workplace and check up on her, and Ianto could see the struggle within him between his family and his job.  The job won, as Jack’s face settled into the Captain’s mask he wore when he made the most difficult choices. 

“We’ll have to trust that Alice’s workmates will look after her,” his mate said, his voice hard.  “Right now it looks as if the planet has been moved.”

“Andy said there were twenty-six planets in the sky…”

“He was right.  We’re not in our usual orbit any longer.”

The Earth being moved made so much sense.  It explained why Ianto felt slightly ill, almost as if he were seasick, and why the Great Dragons and their Friends were down for the count.  Disrupting the Earth itself would have had deleterious effects on anyone even slightly connected to the planet.

The phone in Jack’s office began ringing insistently.  Jack strode toward it, calling out over his shoulder, “I’ve called in Owen and Patrick.  Clint, get on the phone with Agent Coulson, find out what’s going on over in the States.  I’m pretty certain whoever’s calling me is either UNIT or Her Majesty.”  Out of the corner of his eye Ianto watched his mate fling himself down into his chair and pick up the handset, his face stern.

“How can the Earth have been moved?” Rhys demanded, taking Clint’s place on the police radio as the SHIELD agent did as Jack had ordered and was using his mobile to contact his lover.  “We still have air and we’re not freezing or anything!”

Ianto shook his head.  “I’ve no idea, but I can feel it, Rhys…something’s seriously wrong.  And anything done with the Earth would only be bad for the Great Dragons and their Friends.”

“What about you?” Rhys asked pointedly.  “What’s this doing to you?”

“I’m alright for now,” the dragon confessed.  “It…isn’t pleasant, though.”

Rhys snorted.  “I think that’s an understatement.”

Ianto didn’t bother agreeing with him.  What was the point?


	4. Chapter 4

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_London_ **

****

Rose materialised in a residential neighbourhood and into near-complete silence.

It was also dark. 

Doctor Jones had assured her that it had been daylight on her home planet, so this darkness wasn’t normal.

So, she wasn’t at all surprised by the sight of several planets hanging low in the sky, greenish tendrils of gas surrounding them, casting what little light there was over the unnaturally quiet road she was standing on. 

“Well,” she sighed, “it’s only going to get worse.”

This was it.  She felt it in her very bones.  This was where the dimension cannon had pointed, to these very events through the people who were involved.  Rose didn’t have all the answers, but she was certain she could get them as soon as she found the Doctor.

The problem was, the TARDIS was nowhere to be seen.

There was, however, a milkman standing beside his lorry, staring at her as if she was a ghost. 

Of course, he must have seen her transport in.  He’d already been in shock by the sudden appearance of…if she was counting properly, it was twenty-six planets in the sky.  Seeing her appear in a blaze of light probably had already tipped him over the edge.

Still, she needed to know where the Doctor was.

Jones and Coulson had assured her that they’d been able to target the TARDIS and get her to it, and yet it wasn’t to be seen.  Had the planet being suddenly surrounded by new planets knocked the targeting off?  Or had she missed the Doctor somehow?

Rose slung her gun around to her back.  She didn’t want to spook the man more than he was now, and a very visible weapon was sure to do that.  “Hey,” she called out, trying to project calm, “can you tell me if you saw a tall blue box around here?  Probably saying ‘Police’ on it?”

The man’s eyes darted about, like he was trying to figure out a way to escape.  Rose couldn’t let him do that, so she slowed her approach a bit, needing to make him see that she meant him no harm.  She needed to know where the Doctor was, and this man was the only person on the scene.

Making sure her weapon’s carrying strap didn’t slip around and give the man a good enough look at it, Rose held her hands out, trying to appear as harmless as possible.  “Look, I just want to know if you saw a blue Police box in the area today.  It’s really important I find the people who were with it…” 

She needed to find the Doctor.  Whatever the hell was going on, Rose felt it was imperative she discover where he went.  The dimension cannon had pinpointed the TARDIS here, and she cursed herself for having missed it. 

She didn’t know what the planets in the sky were, but they had to be all tied up in what was going on across the dimensions.

The man seemed to be accepting that she wasn’t going to hurt him, despite the fact that she’d appeared out of thin air in front of him.  He bobbed his head, and Rose had to wonder if he was accidentally giving himself whiplash with the sharp, jerking movements.  “It was parked just there.”  He poked his thumb over his shoulder, toward a large tree that was standing on the corner of the road.  “Guy in a suit and a redheaded woman came out of it.”  He choked out a laugh that sounded more than a little hysterical.  “He asked me what bloody day it was…”

Redhead.  That had to have been Donna Noble.  So, she was the Doctor’s current companion, then.  That made far more sense than Rose would have expected.  And only the Doctor would want to know what day it was.

“The man,” she soothed, “you said he was wearing a suit?”

“Yeah.  Suit and a long brown coat.”  The milkman swallowed convulsively.  “They both just stood there.  I went to make my delivery and when I came back, they were gone and the box was still there, but then the ground started shaking…don’t know what happened to the box after that.”  His breath hitched. “Oh Jesus, I need to get home…my wife’ll be going spare…”

She wasn’t going to get anything more out of him, but then Rose was certain he was being honest and hadn’t seen all that much.  “Yeah,” she encouraged.  “Go home.  Stay inside, okay?”

He gave her another of those sharp, painful looking nods.  His mouth moved, as if he was trying to say something, but then he simply darted back into his lorry and, with a grinding of gears, he took off in a cloud of exhaust.

Rose sighed.  She pulled her mobile from her pocket, hoping she’d be able to use it to get through to control.  Jones had assured her it would work across the dimensional barriers after the tinkering he’d done on it.

Coulson answered promptly.  _“Did you get to the Doctor?”_

“No, he was gone when I arrived.”  Rose began walking down the street.  It was eerie, the houses all dark.  She thought she saw a curtain twitch as she passed, and assumed it was the proverbial nosy neighbour.  “What do we have on our targets?”  Hopefully with the dimensional walls so close to collapsing they’d been able to get more information.  “Especially Donna Noble.”  She was going to be the best chance Rose had to tracking down the Doctor.

_“We’ve been able to ascertain that she has family in Chiswick,”_ Coulson answered.  _“A mother and a grandfather.”_

“Can you centre the dimension cannon on either of them?”

_“It needs time to regenerate.  It’ll be at least thirty minutes before it’s charged again.”_

Rose nodded, even though Coulson wouldn’t have been able to see the gesture.  “I’m heading to Chiswick, then.  Something big’s happening here, and we need to find the Doctor as soon as possible.  It appears that Donna’s travelling with him, so maybe her family can get in touch.”

_“Good.”_ Coulson paused.  _“Ms Tyler, the dimensional wall is weakening at an accelerated rate.  Doctor Jones estimates it might collapse totally sometime within the next several hours.”_

“Understood.”  She made it to the end of the street, now needing to decide which way to go.  “I’ll need directions to get to Donna’s folks.”

_“You’ll have them.  Oh, you should know that your mother has been demanding to know where you are.  She and Mr Smith are most likely trying to track you down as we speak.”_

Rose wanted to curse, but sighed instead.  She’s expected them to be on her trail, but not this fast.  “I take it you told her?”

The offended silence was enough to communicate to Rose Coulson’s answer to _that_ question.  _“They have a pair of the older generation dimension jumpers.”_

Now that the dimensions were collapsing, they’d be able to use those once more.  The Doctor having sealed everything off wasn’t going to be working any longer. 

Thank God the Void was gone, though.  Rose certainly didn’t want another Cyberman invasion in the midst of everything else.

_“We have those directions for you.”_

“Give them to me.”

As Coulson relayed them over the line, Rose started off, hoping to find a taxi but not counting on it.  She was certainly wishing she’d confiscated the milkman’s lorry.  It was going to be a long walk.

 


	5. Chapter 5

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_Cardiff_ **

****

Jack put the phone back on its cradle, sighing in frustration.  UNIT was as in the dark as they were, Colonel Mace suggesting an alliance until things could be figured out.  Jack had been loath to accept, since in the end he really didn’t trust UNIT all that much, but then he did respect Mace enough to go along with it, however it was at times like this that Jack wished the Brigadier was still in charge.

He was still more than a little pissed at the colonel for transferring Martha to New York, and Jack didn’t agree with the reason why.

He’d also spoken with Her Majesty, assuring Lizzie that they’d keep her informed of anything they discovered about the situation.  At this point, until they could figure out just how the entire planet had been moved to another area of the universe there wasn’t a damned thing they could do.

Jack found himself wishing that the Doctor would show up.  Yes, while he and the Time Lord had parted on not-so-nice terms after that Year, there were still things that the Time Lord could have been useful for.  For one thing, there was the TARDIS, who had better equipment than Earth currently had access to, even counting what UNIT had in their Black Archive and what Torchwood had on hand.  He couldn’t argue with the results the Doctor often got.

Just recently Jack knew the Doctor had been involved in two events in London – the Adipose and the ATMOS debacle.  Martha had been involved with the aborted Sontaran invasion, and she’d called as soon as everything was all clear.  Of course, the fire in the sky had been a big indicator that the Doctor had been around, since Jack couldn’t think of anyone else who would have been that flashy at resolving a situation. 

He’d been glad that Ianto had been wary of installing the ATMOS device to the SUV.  Rhys had had it put on his personal vehicle, and he’d been trapped inside when the thing had activated.  It had taken breaking out the windscreen to get him out. 

So, yeah, the Doctor definitely had his uses.  This would have been the perfect time for him to show up.

He was also terrified for Alice, and for Steven. 

He’d tried to call her again, and this time one of her workmates had answered, saying that she’d collapsed at her desk.  The man had claimed that they’d called for an ambulance, but with everything that was going on the emergency services were jammed with requests, so they’d made her comfortable on the sofa in her supervisor’s office.  Jack had told him to keep Alice warm, and to call if there was any change, and the man had promised he would. 

Then Jack had called Steven’s school, and had spoken with the headmaster who’d said that all students were being kept in their classes and would be looked after until everything was back to normal.  Jack had requested that she send a message to Steven from his grandfather, and she’d agreed.  If this went past the time school was to be let out, Jack would have to arrange for someone to go and get him…and he barely resisted the urge to do that himself, right that moment.  No, Steven staying at school was the safest option for him at the moment. 

Grabbing his now-cold coffee, Jack left his office and headed out into the main Hub.  Ianto was at Toshiko’s workstation, their technician curled up under a blanket on the sofa, pale and still.  The Earth moving had knocked her for six, and she was still barely conscious.  She was the best at what Ianto was doing, but Jack knew he could also rely on the dragon to do what needed to be done.  He might not have been as savvy in the systems as Toshiko, but he was good.

Rhys was at his desk, and he was trolling through the broadcast stations. As Jack watched, Rhys laughed, and Ianto turned to the Welshman with a smirk, and they shared a moment of lightness before getting back to work. 

Clint was still on his phone, pacing back and forth near the sofa, his gaze sharp.  Jack knew he was watching everyone, keeping his eyes on the team in that way he did.  The captain had never met anyone with the situational awareness that the agent had, and he’d been immediately impressed by Clint the first time he’d met the man, back during the celebrations for his and Ianto’s mating.  He would have been a tremendous asset to the team, and was already a good friend.

In the time he’d been on the phone, Owen and Patrick had arrived.  Jack was surprised that Patrick hadn’t brought his parents with him; Jack had given him permission, given the circumstances, and the fact that Margaret and Everett Delaware had a high-enough security clearance to be shown the Hub, if they’d been willing to sign the Official Secrets Act.  They must have decided not to come, and honestly Jack was glad of it, they’d have been a distraction, but the offer had been there.

While Owen was in better physical condition than Patrick at that point, the medic actually looked paler and more tired than their weapons expert.  But it was the nature of their injuries, as Patrick had been shot in the chest and Owen in the stomach, and Patrick would require far more therapy to become re-certified for duty.

Owen was currently examining Toshiko, using the Bekaran scanner, shaking his head and muttering something Jack couldn’t make out.  Patrick was at his own desk, Deborah hovering around him.  The young woman had been responsible for saving Patrick’s life, and they’d actually become closer since the incident with the Nostrovite.   Patrick thought of Deborah as a sister, and in fact he’d introduced her to his mother as such.  Maggie Coulson-Delaware adored Deborah and had practically adopted her.

Deborah loved Mrs Delaware equally as much, and had slipped up and called her ‘Mum’ more than once.  The expression on Mrs Delaware’s face had been sublime.

“Jack,” Clint called out.  

Jack detoured from heading over to Ianto to meet Clint near the sofa.  “What do you have?”

“I talked to Coulson,” the archer reported, “and from what SHIELD scientists have been able to figure out the Earth has definitely been moved, but they don’t know where to.  Director Fury has all off-duty personnel on stand-by for when the rest of the fucking shit hits the fan.  Fury’s words, not Coulson’s, but they both agreed that this has to be just the beginning.”  He shrugged.  “Also, now that Fury ‘officially’ knows where I am, he’s named me your liaison with SHIELD.  Not that he wasn’t already aware of what I was doing…”

“Plausible deniability,” Patrick put in, coming to stand next to Clint, the white of the sling that kept his arm strapped to his body stark against the dark blue shirt he was wearing. 

“Yep,” Clint agreed.  “Fury also wants to be read into the situation once we know more.  He’s going to be contacting the local UNIT base in New York, as well as coordinating with the _Valiant_ from the Helicarrier.”

“Jack!” Ianto called out.

That brought his attention to his mate, who was still working at Toshiko’s computer.  Jack joined his mate, looking over his shoulder at the larger of the monitors, which showed the scan of the planetary system they’d found themselves in.  “What have you got?”

“Whoever or whatever took the Earth established an atmospheric shell around the planet,” the dragon reported.  “It’s holding in the air and keeping in the heat.”

“At least they wanted us all alive then,” Rhys commented from his own station.  “Not sure it that’s a good thing or bad at this point.”

Jack couldn’t disagree.  No one just grabbed an entire planet out of its orbit for any other purposes that weren’t nefarious. 

The planets on the screen moved, in some sort of dance around a point within the system that didn’t seem to be a sun.  As one of the worlds passed in front of the scan, it revealed a flashing red light.  “I think that might be our culprit,” he murmured. 

Ianto’s fingers flew across the keyboard.  “It’s some sort of artificial construct.”

“A space station, then.”  Jack frowned.  “I’m willing to bet my next five deaths that we’re going to need to go there to find out just what’s going on.”

By then, the rest of the team – except for Toshiko, who hadn’t moved from the sofa – had gathered around the workstation, watching as Ianto brought up more scans of the area in space around them.  Jack confirmed that there were, indeed, twenty-six other planets besides the Earth, all of them of various sizes…and, if the readings were correct, a few of them were also inhabited, like the Earth…or at least they once were.  From the scans Jack could see that there were ruins there, as if battles had raged across their surfaces.

It worried Jack that this could happen there on Earth, as well. 


	6. Chapter 6

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_New York_ **

****

Martha Jones wanted to curse under her breath but refrained, needing to keep professional under the circumstances.

As if the Earth being moved wasn’t bad enough, she couldn’t reach the Doctor…and that should have been impossible.

Her phone had been gimmicked so that it could have reached the TARDIS no matter where – or when – the time machine was, and there was just dead air on the line.  Her phone wasn’t connecting. 

She hung up in irritation.  It wasn’t a case of the Doctor simply ignoring her, because then she would just get the voicemail.  This was different, and she was willing to bet that the signal was somehow being blocked.  Whoever was responsible for stealing the Earth was preventing her mobile signal from getting out.

Her fingers itched to call Tom.  She hadn’t seen him in almost three weeks, ever since she’d been abruptly transferred to UNIT New York.  Colonel Mace hadn’t given her much of a choice, moving Project Indigo out of UNIT Great Britain and to New York had meant that, if she’d wanted to remain as Medical Director, she’d need to go along as well.  Her own sense of duty had been used against her, and she didn’t care for it one bit.

She’d had to leave Tom, just as she’d gotten around to asking him to marry her.  Her thumb played with the ring on her finger, a reminder of what she’d left behind in London to come to complete the project.  The good thing was, as soon as Indigo was up and functioning, she could go home, back to the flat she and Tom had shared. 

Martha needed to know if Tom was safe.  And yet, she was in the middle of a crisis, under the eye of her commanding officer, General Sanchez, a no-nonsense man who frowned upon personal detours just to make sure family was safe. 

She also wanted to phone her Dragon.  She knew Ianto and Jack and the team had to be in the thick of things.  They were also down two, although they’d picked up Clint for the duration, and that worried her more than a little.  Both Owen and Patrick were excellent out in the field, plus Owen was their doctor.  She’d actually argued with Colonel Mace about taking a temporary secondment to Torchwood until Owen was at least cleared for duty, but the colonel had declined and had sent her to New York instead. 

And then there were her parents.  Martha had to wonder just what they were going through.  Her Mum and Dad and Tish were healed from the events of that Year, but this had to be disrupting all that hard-earned peace. 

But she had her duty, and she would do it. 

Right now, that duty was to try and reach the Doctor.

Once again, Martha tried to dial the Time Lord. 

Nothing.

It was all she could do not to throw her phone against the nearest wall.

“We have approximately two hundred objects, Earthbound trajectory,” one of the men on the tracking computer announced.

Martha turned toward the large main screen, phone still at her ear.  In the middle of the image was the space station they’d detected almost immediately upon getting everything back up and running, and from that was a swarm of dots that were heading directly toward them.

She shivered.  She couldn’t help it.  She just knew this was going to be so horribly bad.

“Geneva is calling a Code Red,” Sanchez snapped.  “Everyone to battle stations.”

The lights in the room faded to that reddish-tinge that meant things were going to hell and they’d need to stop it. 

Sanchez glared at Martha.  “If you’re not too busy, Dr Jones?” His tone was patently hostile, but Martha had come to realise that this was just the general’s way, and that it wasn’t anything personal.

She pulled the phone away, thumbing the disconnect button.  It wasn’t connecting anyway.  “I’m trying to reach the Doctor,” she said, with just enough steel in her own voice to let the general know that she wasn’t just messing about.

Sanchez’s demeanour changed, slipping to stern curiosity.  “And?” he prompted.

“There’s no signal,” she answered, letting her frustration show.  “This phone can call anywhere in Time and Space.  It never breaks down.  And yet…it’s being blocked, and that worries me.”

Sanchez might have been an arse, but he trusted his people, and right now that meant Martha.  “You think whoever’s responsible for all of this is powerful enough to block Time Lord technology?”

“Whoever they are.” 

Martha wasn’t a technician – she knew to leave that sort of thing to Toshiko – but she did know that Time Lord tech was some of the most powerful there was in the universe.  What the Doctor could do would have been considered magical to anyone else, but it all came down to science with him.  There wasn’t much that the Doctor didn’t know.

In all her travels with him Martha hadn’t really run into much that he couldn’t get around.  Certainly, it might take some time, but the Doctor usually could work around a lot.  And he’d been the one to program her phone to reach the TARDIS no matter where or when it was.

“We’re about to find out.”  Sanchez turned toward the monitor.  “Looks like they’re coming into orbit.”

Martha stepped away, deciding it was time to reach out to her Dragon.  She knew that the satellites around the Earth had been brought along for the ride, which meant the mobile network was still up and running…for the time being.

However, it was Jack who answered.

_“Hello, Nightingale.  Please tell me you managed to put something into my drink.”_

The words were joking, but the tone was deadly serious.  Jack was in Captain mode, and it actually comforted her more than all of the weaponry that UNIT currently had on display.

“Afraid not, Jack.  Is everyone alright?”

_“Not really.  Whatever caused the Earth to move has incapacitated all the Great Dragon Friends.  Ianto thinks it means the Great Dragons themselves are down.”_

Martha’s heart seized in her chest.  That meant Toshiko was out of the picture, unable to help in whatever was coming, as well as Alice, Kathy, and Rhiannon.  “Are they going to be alright?” she asked, realising that she had the answer before Jack could even speak.

_“We have no idea.  It doesn’t help that we don’t know what we’re dealing with here.  Anything on your end?  I spoke to Colonel Mace, and he said he’d get us information the moment he had it…”_

What Jack wasn’t saying was that he wasn’t trusting UNIT to keep that promise.  She wanted to bristle at the shade he was casting on her employers, but she really couldn’t.  She was still bitter about moving to New York.  

_“Director Fury from SHIELD is going to be contacting the commander onsite for New York UNIT’s offices,”_ Jack went on.  _“I think it’s best if we all share information at this point. Until we know who dragged the planet halfway across the galaxy…”_

Martha agreed.  “One second, Jack.”  She put her hand over her phone’s receiver, turning back to General Sanchez.  “General, I have it on authority that the Director of SHIELD is going to be in touch.”

Sanchez nodded, his stern expression turning dour.  One of the first things that Martha had learned upon coming to New York was that there was no love lost between SHIELD and UNIT, and that the general’s fondest wish was that Nick Fury would take a flying leap off the deck of his own Helicarrier.  It didn’t help that the builders of the _Valiant_ hadn’t accepted the contract for it from Stark Industries, instead going to Justin Hammer, and so SHIELD considered the UNIT airship to be an inferior vehicle.  Now that both were in New York there was a pool going on just which one would win during the inevitable game of Chicken that everyone saw coming.

Personally, Martha hoped the SHIELD Helicarrier would knock the _Valiant_ out of the sky.  She had far too many bad memories of that Year to even set foot on board it.

Just as she was going back to her own call, Martha saw someone hand Sanchez a sat phone, and she knew immediately that it would be Fury on the other end of that call.

“Have you heard from the Doctor?” she asked Jack.

Her friend snorted.  _“And you’d think he’d call me…why?”_

Alright, so maybe Jack had a point.  However, Martha liked to think that the end of the world would have trumped any bad feelings the Time Lord had for the immortal Director of Torchwood.  “I’ve been trying to call him, and all I get is a dead line.  Something’s blocking my call.”

_“That shouldn’t happen.”_

“No, it shouldn’t.  I was hoping to speak to Toshiko about it…I didn’t even consider that all of this might have affected her.”  Then she had a thought.  “What about Ianto?  Is he alright?”  She liked to think that Jack would have told her immediately if something was wrong with her Dragon, but there was a lot going on at the moment and he might not have wanted to worry her.

_“Here, let me put you on speaker.”_ There was that slight tonal change that marked a mobile going into speaker mode.  _“Ianto, let Nightingale know you’re okay.”_

_“I’m as good as I can be,”_ the familiar voice answered. 

Martha hadn’t known just how worried she was, until she actually heard Ianto’s voice.  Yes, it sounded tired, but at least he sounded alright. 

She curled a bit around her phone, not wanting anyone to hear her conversation.  Not that anyone really would be paying attention, not with everything else, but Martha didn’t want to take the chance.  “Do you have any sort of symptoms, Dragon?”

Ianto was connected to the planet, not as strongly as the Great Dragon Friends, but there was still that closeness that came from the Earth Dragon.  _“I’m feeling a bit nauseous, but at least I wasn’t knocked for a loop like Toshiko and the others were.”_

_“He was still affected when the Earth moved,”_ Jack butted in.  _“He’s mostly recovered, but you know I won’t take a chance on him getting sick.”_

Martha was as certain of that as she was about anything else; Jack was protective of his entire ‘family’, but of no one more than his mate.  “Have you heard from Tom?” she blurted the question before she could stop herself.

_“Owen has, and he’s fine.  He’s with your family.  He’s worried about you, of course, so you might want to call him if you get the chance.”_

It suddenly hit her: the world might possibly be ending, and she was an ocean away from the one person she wanted to be with.  Tom was the love of her life, and if she had only a little time left she really wanted to be with him.  And yet, there she was…in New York, while Tom was in London, staying with her family while she worked to save the world.  Again. 

She vowed to herself, then and there, that she’d always fight any other posting that would take her away from him. 

“General!” a voice called out.  “We’re receiving a transmission!”

“Put it though,” Sanchez ordered.  “Let’s hear it.”

Martha held her breath.  This was it…the answer to the question of who actually had moved the Earth.  It would mean they’d finally have something to work with…

And when that answer came, Martha almost dropped the phone in sheer horror.

“EXTERMINATE!  EXTERMINATE!”

 

 


	7. Chapter 7

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_Cardiff_ **

****

Ianto could feel his mate trembling next to him as the tinny sounds of “Exterminate!” came over the open connection to Martha.

He was well aware of the circumstances of his mate’s first death, on board the Gamestation.  Hearing the Daleks over the phone was obviously a shock to him, and Ianto reached out and put his arm about his mate’s waist, pulling him closer and attempting to offer some form of comfort.

While he hadn’t seen the Daleks in action at Canary Wharf, Ianto had been a witness to the death and destruction they’d left behind.  He’d read the stories in the Archives and felt he knew exactly what they were capable of.  But, to take the entire planet out of its own solar system and to transport it somewhere else…that seemed so very far beyond even their technology.

Although, this was the race that had come within a hairs’ breadth of destroying the Time Lords, only failing in the end because of the Doctor destroying both Gallifrey and the invading Daleks.  Perhaps Ianto was underestimating them.

“What the hell is that?” Rhys demanded. 

Of course.  Only Ianto himself, Toshiko and Owen had been with Torchwood for the Canary Wharf disaster.  None of the others would know what they were dealing with, and what would have their normally fearless leader shaking so hard that Ianto was practically holding him up.

“They’re the Daleks,” Ianto answered softly, not bothering to hide his own horror at those terrible, grating words.  “One of the deadliest races in the universe.  They were mostly responsible for what happened at Torchwood One.  We…might not stand a chance if they’re the ones who took the Earth and transported it here.”

It was quite possibly the closest they’d come to apocalypse in quite a long time.  The Song of Mourning rose in Ianto’s chest, but the dragon ruthlessly stifled the urge to begin to sing.  Intellectually, he knew there wasn’t much any of them could do, if the Daleks were set on invading and killing every human on the planet then they’d do so.  The only reason they hadn’t succeeded before was because of the Doctor, and there was no sign of the Time Lord anywhere.

The line disconnected.  Martha must have hung up.  Ianto prayed that she was alright, all the way in New York and without her family around her. 

A sharp shudder passed through his mate, and then Jack was pulling away, and even without looking Ianto knew that he was forcing himself to become Torchwood’s Captain, to lead his team.  He glanced up, into Jack’s hard features, and waited for orders.

“Clint,” Jack said, “you need to contact Agent Coulson and tell him to get the Helicarrier into the water now.  If the Daleks see it in the air, they’ll target it.  Hell, they might target it anyway, but if it seems harmless they might not do anything right away, and that may give us an advantage later on.  Plus, it might cut down on casualties if the Helicarrier isn’t knocked out of the sky.”

“You got it, Boss.”  The SHIELD agent had his phone out and was dialling.

“Clint,” Ianto called him back, “also let Agent Coulson know we’re going to forward on every bit of information we have on the Daleks to SHIELD.  He’s going to need it if we have any hope of fighting them.”

The archer acknowledged Ianto’s words with a nod, and then was on the line, his quiet voice filling the near-silence of the Hub.

“Ianto,” Jack murmured, “you’ll make sure that gets to SHIELD’s servers?”

“I’m on it now, Jack.”  He turned back to the computer, already, pulling up the relevant files from the digital Archives.  He wished he could get up and embrace his mate, but he didn’t dare do anything that might have Jack break out of the carefully maintained façade he had raised.

“Rhys,” Jack went on, “contact Andy and let him know what we’re dealing with.  I know you’ve never had the experience with the Daleks that most of us have, but stress to him that this is a very dangerous situation and we need to make sure the loss of life is negligible.”

“Doing it now.” Matching actions to words, Rhys had his own phone out.

“Patrick,” Jack turned to their American teammate, “call Eion at the Lord Mayor’s office.  Let him know this is an Extinction Level event and that the Mayor needs to get on the air and warn the residents to stay in their homes for the duration of the emergency.  If the Daleks can’t see people, there might be a chance they can escape…for a while, at least.”

“On it, Boss.”  Another phone was out and being used. 

Ianto pulled up the connection between mainframe and the SHIELD servers that Toshiko had set up, using his command codes to transfer everything they had over to their American allies.  Torchwood and SHIELD had a good rapport, and that was more to do with Patrick’s presence than anything that Ianto had done, despite his best efforts.  Even though Patrick never would pass along secrets to another agency, it seemed that once Patrick had been hired in, Phil Coulson had begun to put more trust in Torchwood, and for that Ianto was grateful.  He’d already had his work cut out for him as a liaison between all the agencies they dealt with on a regular basis, and although they hadn’t hired Patrick for his connections they’d certainly come in handy.

Although it made Ianto’s job just a bit more difficult.  Especially on the odd occasion he’d had to talk to his counterpart in the CIA.  Rex Matheson was a pain in the backside that the dragon just didn’t need.

“Owen,” Jack spoke, “you might want to check the supplies we have on hand.  There’s no telling how many injured we’re going to be dealing with before everything is said and done.”

“Jack,” Owen murmured, just loud enough for both Jack and Ianto to hear, “is there really anything we can do?”

The captain sighed.  “Honestly?  I don’t know.  But we’re not going down without a fight.”

“Fuck no,” Owen snarled.  “We fight no matter what.”

Jack clapped him on the shoulder.  “You know it.”

“What about me, Jack?” Deborah spoke up.  She was far too pale, but her expression was determined.  “What do you want me to do?”

Jack smiled proudly.  “I want you on the scanners.  We need to know where the Daleks are hitting.  Take Rhys’ desk.  Ianto, can you transfer control?”

The dragon typed a few commands into the computer.  “Done.”

“Thanks for that.”  She hugged Jack and then took her station, eyes tracking whatever readings she was getting.

Jack snatched up the phone from where Ianto had left it after Martha had disconnected, dialling swiftly.  “Colonel Mace,” he ground out, “how are your men distributed throughout Great Britain?” He listened, his face showing his anger at the situation. 

Ianto wondered if it was the anger that was what was keeping him from completely panicking.

He wasn’t unaware that the reason Jack hadn’t gone with him, Suzie, and Owen to London after Canary Wharf was because his mate had a very deep-seated fear of the Daleks.  It wasn’t because they could kill him because, of course, they could only do it temporarily.  No, it was because they were the ones responsible for his first death, and that death haunted him no matter how many centuries it had been since it had occurred.  It had traumatised him in ways Jack could never possibly explain, and to be faced with them again, and this time in such numbers, had to have brought up all those old fears again.

“Jack!” Deborah cried out, “the _Valiant_ ’s under attack!  It’s going down!”

Everyone in the Hub turned toward her, various degrees of shock on their faces.  Clint himself seemed shell-shocked, and Ianto wondered if he was thinking that this could have been the SHIELD Helicarrier, where his lover was currently stationed.  Hopefully Coulson had gotten to Fury in time to get the Helicarrier out of the way of the rampaging Daleks.

To be honest, if it wasn’t for the terrible loss of life, Ianto wasn’t at all disappointed in the destruction of the _Valiant._ It had been where Jack had been held for a year and horribly tortured, and he’d have scuttled the thing himself if he’d been able to.  If a dragon could hold actions against an object, then Ianto would have called a Rite of Vengeance against the air carrier a long time ago.

“The Helicarrier is in the water off the coast of New York,” Clint reported.  He had the phone away from his ear.  “So far, the Daleks aren’t going after it, but Coulson thinks it’s only a matter of time.  Fury’s ordered an evacuation of the ship except for a skeleton crew.”  He paused, putting the phone back against his face, listening for a few seconds.  “Also, Coulson says he got all the information you sent, Ianto.  He’s passing it along to Fury and the science boffins, to see if they can come up with something that will work against the Daleks.”

“Have him let us know if they do,” Jack said. 

Clint went back to his call, relaying Jack’s request along.  He nodded once, indicating that Coulson had agreed. 

“There are Daleks landing in Japan,” Deborah called out.  “Air forces in North Africa are retreating from superior forces.”

Things were getting out of hand, and yet there wasn’t a thing they could do.  Ianto felt whatever hope he’d had fading.  However, he knew he couldn’t show his team that.  He had to be strong for them, and for his mate, just as Jack had to do the same. 

It seemed like an impossible situation. 

There really was only one person who had any hope of stopping things, and the Doctor was nowhere to be seen…as much as he didn’t want to admit it, they needed the Time Lord.

 

 


	8. Chapter 8

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_Interlude – Tony Stark_ **

**_New York_ **

****

Death was raining down from the skies, just outside Tony Stark’s living room window.

He’d only been living in the family mansion in New York for a couple of weeks during the permit phase for his new tower.  Just his luck he’d come back from Malibu in time for the Apocalypse to happen!

He could hear the flying doodads outside his window, their shouts of “EXTERMINATE” rattling the panes as they shot past.  Tony turned away, knowing what he had to do.

“You’re going out there, aren’t you?”

He glanced over at Pepper, her face far too pale against the brightness of her hair.  He wanted to put on the false face of bravado that he saved for the public, but with her…no, he couldn’t it.  She deserved to know what he was about to do.

After all, he was Iron Man. 

But this wasn’t about going against assholes who were using the weapons his company had once made.  No, this was an alien threat that he really had no fucking clue about.

Still, he had to try.

So, he put on his best smile.  “I’m a big damn hero…it’s what I do.”

Pepper rolled her eyes.  “It’s nice to know your sense of humility is still working in the face of ultimate destruction.”

Tony reached out and gently grasped her by the upper arms.  “You know I have to do this.”

She was quite possibly the strongest woman he’d ever known.  Tony wasn’t good enough for her, really.  “You just want to get out of the planning committee meeting this afternoon.”

“Damnit, you caught me.”  He smirked.  Then he called out, “JARVIS, is the Mark II ready?”

“Indeed it is, Sir,” the artificial intelligence answered, “however, you have an incoming call from SHIELD…it’s Agent Coulson.”

Tony snorted.  “Tell him I’m busy saving the world.”

“He says he’s aware of your tendency to grandstand,” JARVIS answered, his voice sounding vaguely amused, “but he also says it’s urgent he speak with you before you ‘do something the world is going to regret’.”

“Talk to him,” Pepper urged.  “He might have information you don’t.”

As much as he didn’t want to admit it, Pepper had a point.  Maybe SHIELD knew what these garbage can-shaped aliens were, and how to stop them.

“Alright J, put him through.”

_“Mister Stark.”_

“Hey, Agent!” Tony greeted the SHIELD man jovially, as if the world wasn’t ending outside his panoramic windows.  “How’s your day going?”

The thing was, Tony actually liked Agent Coulson, not that he’d ever say so.  He’d helped Pepper out with that shit with Obie, and he knew she was genuinely fond of the man.  From what he’d heard, Pepper had lunch with the agent whenever their schedules allowed it. 

_“Very well so far,”_ came the dry delivery over JARVIS’ internal communications systems.  _“Although I have a bit of a situation you might want to be aware of.”_

“Oh, you mean the alien invasion going on outside?” Tony snarked back.  “No, that wasn’t at all obvious.”

_“Mister Stark, I need to ask you not to go out and face them.”_

Outrage thrummed through every fibre of Tony Stark’s body.  “You can’t be fucking serious!” he shouted.  “The city’s going to be destroyed – “

_“You don’t know what you’re going up against – “_

“Do you?” he challenged.

_“While SHIELD’s never faced them before, we do have certain sources that have, and they’ve passed along all the information they have.  If you go out to face the Daleks, you’ll be dead before you get more than one shot off.”_

_Daleks_.  So, that was what the alien menace was called.  Actually, the name was a bit of a let-down.  Tony had expected something magnificent…maybe like the Floating Trash-Cans of Death or something equally megalomaniacal.

Tony was suddenly shaken by the agent’s assurance that he would, indeed, fail, and he fell back into his natural sarcasm to cover his nerves.  “Ah, Agent…I didn’t know you cared!”

_“I wouldn’t want Ms Potts to be upset.”_

That had him barking a single laugh.  “It’s good to know where I rate with you, Coulson.”

Tony didn’t dare look out the window now.  His imagination was telling him it was bad, and he itched to get out there and protect innocent lives.  Yet, he thought he knew Agent Coulson, and could trust him to give him the truth about what was going on…well, as much as he could trust anyone working for a shadowy government agency.  “Well, if you won’t let me get out there and kick some ass, what do you suggest?”   It really was against his nature to wait, but even he had just enough common sense to make sure he had all the facts.

He really wanted to do some attacking, though.  Too many innocent lives were going to be lost if he had to sit back and watch from the sidelines.  His very skin itched with helplessness.

Pepper must have sensed it, because she came to stand next to him, and grasped his hand.  It felt grounding, and he held it right back.

_“I know you don’t do weapons anymore,”_ Coulson said, _“but we could really use something that will be of use against the Daleks.  I’m going to send you the information we have, can you see what you can come up with?”_

See, and this was why he secretly respected Coulson.  Unlike his boss, Fury, Agent Coulson _asked_.  “Send it on,” he said.  “I’ll see what I can do.”

_“Thank you, Mr Stark.”_ There was actual relief in Coulson’s voice.  Tony was shocked that the usually unflappable agent was showing his emotions.  Things had to be really in the shitter for him to let himself go like that.

It made everything that much more serious. 

“I have the information incoming from Agent Coulson,” JARVIS reported. 

“Put it up on my console, J.”  The desk at the other side of the room lit up, and from where Tony was standing he could make out the scrolling on the monitor.  “Agent, I’ll keep you informed.”

A sudden thump against the window had Tony nearly jumping out of his skin, and he spun around in a panic, putting himself between whatever the hell it was and Pepper, arm outstretched even though he didn’t have the armour on…yet.  He sagged in relief when it was simply a tree branch hitting the glass.  His heart was hammering a mile a minute, hard against the casing of the arc reactor.

_“Thank you.  Let us know if you come up with anything.”_

“Hey, you know me…team player, and all.”  He couldn’t resist the dig, and it had more to do with covering his own anxiousness than wanting to needle the SHIELD agent.

Coulson apparently wasn’t going to dignify that with a response, because they all knew if there was something Tony wasn’t, it was a team player.  _“Good luck, Mr Stark.”_

“Who needs luck when you have good looks, charm, and brains?”

That also didn’t get a response…unless being hung up on counted. 

Curious despite what was Armageddon outside the house, Tony went over to his desk and began to access the files that Coulson had sent over.

What he saw had his mouth dropping open in shock. Pepper, looking over his shoulder, gasped.

“J, I need to know where this came from.”

“I shall see if I am able to back trace the file, sir,” JARVIS answered, “however, whoever encrypted this information was quite proficient.”

Which was JARVIS-speak for genius-level brilliant and on par with anything Tony himself might have come up with.

“Do what you can,” he said.

“Are you sure you want to find them?” Pepper whispered.

No, but he wasn’t about to admit to that.  This was scary shit, but it wasn’t about to stop Tony from discovering just who these mysterious SHIELD contacts were.

But he had to come up with something to defeat these Daleks first.  JARVIS could handle the back trace at the moment, while Tony got to work.

 

 

 


	9. Chapter 9

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_New York_ **

****

_“Martha,”_ Jack’s insistent voice echoed over the Bluetooth’s she’d hooked over her ear, so she could have her hands free, _“you have to get out of there.”_

The soldier she was treating wasn’t bleeding any longer; she’d managed to get the head wound stanched and the bandage on properly.  Everyone was bustling around her, responding to the Dalek attack going on in the city.

She already knew they’d lost the _Valiant._ Martha shouldn’t feel as relieved as she did, because despite the fact that the _Valiant_ was the place where her family had been held for a year and where Jack had been tortured and killed, over and over again, there had been innocent people on the flying ship.  She’d flatly refused to set foot on her decks ever again, and Colonel Mace had been surprisingly supportive of her on that score.  Still, it was a horrific loss of life, and while she secretly cheered the destruction of the actual airship she mourned those who’d been killed onboard her.  UNIT should have known better than to go up against the Daleks like that.

“I can’t leave, Jack,” she answered, motioning for the soldier that he could get back on duty.  There hadn’t been that many injuries in headquarters; just those who’d been hurt when the planet had been forcibly moved.  “I have a job to do.”

To be honest, she wanted nothing more than to be at home, in her flat with Tom, curled up against the man she loved as the world ended around them.  But she was in New York, far away from London, and it was either do things or go mad.

_“The Daleks are targeting the military!  You’re going to be next!”_ He was trying very hard not to panic, she could tell.  Martha knew Jack; knew of his need to protect those he considered family, and Martha was one of those people, but she was too far away from him for the immortal to come to her rescue.

If he was feeling that way, then she couldn’t even imagine how her Dragon was dealing with her distance from home.  Still, Ianto would be busy, handling things back in Cardiff, but that didn’t stop her from wishing he was there with her.

“Doctor Jones.”

Martha looked up, into the stern face of her commanding officer. “Yes Sir?” She got to her feet, standing to attention.

Before joining UNIT, she never would have considered herself as someone who would take to military precision.  Yet, there she was, taking orders from a General in a very military organisation, feeling as if she should be saluting.  She refrained.

“Come with me.  Project Indigo is being activated.”

Sanchez turned on his heel and left the command centre, and after a stunned few moments Martha had to jog to catch up.  “But we can’t!  It hasn’t been tested yet!  We don’t even know if it works.”  Things must have been dire if they were willing to use untested technology. 

Martha felt as if she was having trouble breathing as she accompanied General Sanchez toward the storage area of the base.  They were perhaps months away from human trials…if they even got that far.  There were so many things about Project Indigo that they just didn’t understand, and yet the general was ordering it used. 

This wasn’t like something cobbled together by the Doctor.  Martha more often than not trusted the Time Lord to come up with just the right device for the occasion, but then he hadn’t had a thing to do with Indigo.  There was a reason for stringent testing, and Sanchez was bypassing all of that because of the situation going on.

Because of the Daleks.

Jack was yelling in her ear.  _“Martha!  You can’t use that!  It’s not safe!”_

She wanted to reassure him that it would be fine, that Indigo would do what it was supposed to. But she couldn’t.  She had no way of knowing if that was even true.  Hell, they might activate it and nothing would happen. 

Or it could blow up in their faces.

The guard on the experimental vault was turning the wheel that opened the section where the Indigo device was stored.  Martha’s mind went to the meeting she was supposed to have run tomorrow, about the next series of experiments to see what they could glean from the mechanism.  Indigo was alien, something that UNIT had scavenged from an aborted Sontaran invasion several years ago, and there were so many things about it they just didn’t know.  However, after the Sontarans had reappeared during the ATMOS incident it had been decided to bring the project out of mothballs.

The Indigo device came into view.  It was simply a harness, looking vaguely like something a paratrooper would wear, down to the dual rip-cord handles on the shoulder straps.  There was a thin backpack sort of thing on the back, attached to the black webbing of the harness, and a large, silvery buckle in the front.

“Put it on,” Sanchez urged.  “Quick as you can.”

_“Martha!”_ Jack was begging now, and it broke her heart to hear it.  _“Please don’t do this!  We don’t know what’ll happen!”_

Sanchez must have known that Jack was on her Bluetooth, because he said harshly, “You take your orders from UNIT, Dr Jones, and _not_ Torchwood.”

Martha’s hands visibly trembled as she reached into the vault to take the Indigo device, slipping her arms through the harness and buckling is across her abdomen.  “But why me?” she asked, once the harness was settled onto her shoulders.

“You’re our only hope of finding the Doctor,” Sanchez replied.  “But, failing that...”  He reached into his pocket, pulling out a small plastic square on a piece of chain.

Martha knew immediately what it was.  She didn’t want to even touch the thing.  How dare Sanchez do this to her?  She was a doctor, and not someone who should have been put in charge of _that_!   

“If no help is coming,” Sanchez went on, “then by the power invested in me by the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, I authorise you to take this.”

Martha felt like cringing away from it.  She shook her head in denial.

“The Osterhagen Key.”

She’d been thoroughly briefed on the Osterhagen Protocol.  Why someone thought it would be a good idea that she know about it…Martha didn’t want to have a thing to do with it. 

She shook her head even as Sanchez was pressing the key into her hand, the sharp edges digging into her palm.  “I can’t take that, Sir.”

There had to be another way.  This couldn’t be it, the end of the world.  No, she would find the Doctor, and then she’d not have to use such a terrible weapon.

“You know what to do.” 

Of course, Martha did. 

“For the sake of the human race.”

There was a sudden explosion somewhere within the complex, accompanied by the high-pitched, electronic sound of Dalek voices shouting to exterminate everyone they saw.  Martha looked down the corridor; she couldn’t see anything, but the Daleks had to have been close if she could hear them.

Sanchez stepped away, saluting her.  “Good luck, Dr Jones.”

She saluted him back; she couldn’t help herself this time.  “You too, Sir.”

Martha knew this would be the last time she’d ever see him again.

General Sanchez, Commander of UNIT North America, drew his service weapon and strode down the corridor, followed by the soldier who’d let them into the vault, his automatic weapon held at the ready. 

He was going to his death, and he was aware of that fact.

The end of the corridor exploded, and two Daleks pushed through the hole in the wall, their inhuman voices screeching to exterminate the two men.

Martha really had no choice.  She wasn’t ready to die.

So, she closed her eyes, wishing more than anything that she was in London with Tom and her family, knowing that she might very well never see them again.

“Goodbye, Jack,” she whispered.  “Goodbye, Dragon.”

She pulled the handles and braced for the worst.

 

 

 


	10. Chapter 10

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_Cardiff_ **

****

Jack threw his mobile down onto the desk, where it bounced and tumbled to the floor with a loud clatter.

“What the hell is Project Indigo?” Patrick demanded. 

Ianto knew, while Patrick didn’t remember meeting Martha in that Year and saving her life, the two had gotten close during the times they’d been together.  He respected Martha, and wouldn’t have wanted anything to happen to her.

Quite a crowd had gathered around the station where Ianto had been working, and where Jack had been talking to Martha on the phone.  He’d had the mobile on speaker, so everyone had heard what had been happening in New York.

They’d heard Martha say goodbye to him and Jack.  Ianto wasn’t about to cry, as much as he really wanted to.

“It’s an experimental teleport,” Jack answered harshly, dragging his hands over his face roughly.  “It was scavenged from the Sontarans.  But they haven’t got coordinates or stabilisation.”  The sheer pain in his voice had everyone’s attention.

“What does that mean for Martha?” Deborah asked tentatively.

Jack looked as if he’d rather die than explain, so Ianto did.  “It means Martha was most likely scattered into atoms.”  He was proud of the fact that his voice didn’t crack.  “She’s gone.”

“Oh god,” Rhys whispered.

The loss and horror of Ianto’s announcement lay over the Hub, stifling and heavy.  In the silence Ianto could hear the reports coming in over the emergency network, the Lord Mayor’s voice urging everyone to stay indoors and to shelter themselves from the Daleks prowling the streets. 

This time, Ianto couldn’t keep his grief to himself any longer, and the ancient words of the Song of Mourning echoed out over the Hub, drifting over them all as they stood around the workstation, drowning out the words that were being said to the people of Cardiff.  The dragon knew they really didn’t have time for this, but there wasn’t any way he could keep his pain to himself any longer.

He had the feeling that Martha was only going to be the first.

His mate’s warm, broad hand landed on his shoulder, and Ianto reached for it, clasping tightly and not wanting to let go.  Jack’s eyes were glittering with tears as he leaned into the dragon’s body, needing the comfort as much as he was giving it.  Owen had his eyes closed, swaying slightly as Ianto sang.  Deborah had her arms around Patrick, letting herself sag against him, and Patrick’s good arm was around her shoulder, steadying her as much as he was able.  Rhys had collapsed into a chair, his eyes shocked and unhappy.  Clint hadn’t known her as well, but he’d liked her, and the pain in his eyes was equal to anyone else’s in the Hub.  Each of them had loved Martha in their own way, and to lose her like that was a blow Ianto wasn’t sure they’d be able to recover from.

But to him, Martha was like a sister.  The Nightingale and the Dragon, walking the Earth to save it.  They’d supported each other through what had, until that moment, been the worst that the world had gone through.  He’d helped her with her mission, and she’d saved his life.  They’d been thrown together and had relied on each other, and Ianto had loved her as much as he loved Toshiko, his other sister. 

There really wasn’t anyone he would make his Vengeance oath against. 

He’d be the one to tell Tom and Martha’s family.  It was his right, as her brother, and he hadn’t been able to protect her in the end.

If the planet survived the Daleks.

The song faded.  Ianto rubbed his eyes, doing his best to push his grief back into a manageable lump of pain in his chest, needing to concentrate on what was going on outside, beyond the Hub. He took a deep breath in past the loss that smothered his heart, going back to the computer readings he’d been monitoring as Jack had tried to convince Martha not to use untested technology to get away from the Daleks invading UNIT’s New York base.

_“This is the Commander General of the United Nations,”_ an accented voice rose from amidst the chatter on the emergency band, _“calling the Dalek fleet.  We surrender. I repeat: we surrender.”_

It was really all they could do.  There were far too many Daleks and they’d quickly decimated Earth’s defences.  Those that were left didn’t have the firepower to push back the Daleks.  Plus, the unimaginable power that it had to have taken to move the Earth simply demoralised everyone. 

Ianto, though, didn’t have any hope that, in the long run, that the residents of Earth would survive the Daleks, whatever they wanted the world for.  He wasn’t at all sure the Earth itself would survive; he could feel the planet suffering, although it must have been so much worse for the Great Dragon Friends, with their direct connections to the Great Dragons.  Toshiko had yet to regain consciousness, and the dragon doubted that the other three were in any better shape. 

They were dying.  He had no doubt of that. 

Perhaps this was for the best.  Perhaps the four of them not being aware of what was going on was a mercy. 

He thought of Rhiannon, the last Jones, daughter of the long line of priests who had saved a young dragon who’d thought he’d had nothing left to lose after the deaths of his family.  She’d be leaving her own family behind if she passed; her two children, and the husband that she loved to tease so much.

Then his mind went to Kathy, one of the first human friends he’d made in Cardiff outside of Torchwood, and how much he’d been looking forward to hers and Toshiko’s wedding in this summer.  The police officer, still so new in her responsibilities as a detective chief inspector, but strong and smart and ready for any challenge her position would bring.

And Alice…the closest thing he’d ever have to a daughter, who’d accepted that a two-thousand-year-old dragon could become a parent, and who loved him just as much as he loved her.  Steven most likely didn’t even know that his mother was ill, trapped at his school as the Daleks rampaged.  Both alone, without either Jack or Ianto there to comfort them.   

No.

It couldn’t end like that. 

Ianto wasn’t going to give up.  There had to be something they could do.  They still had allies out there, ones that would only be waiting for the right moment to fight back. 

“I don’t think a simple surrender is going to satisfy the Daleks,” Jack said, his voice choked by his own emotions.  He looked around at the gathered team.  “Get back to work, people,” he ordered. 

“There are reports of Daleks rounding people up out of their homes,” Deborah said, taking her seat back at her station, her fingers dashing tears from her eyes as she concentrated on what the monitor was telling her.  “They aren’t exterminating them, though.”

“Okay, so the Daleks want them for something,” Jack said.  He began to pace, which was a sure sign he was trying to put things together.  “They want the Earth here, with these other planets, and they’re keeping humans alive for some reason.”

“We need to figure out what that is,” Patrick added.  He looked twitchy, which was his default when he wanted to be out and doing something but needed to stay where he was.  Ianto wondered if he was thinking about his parents, back at his flat, waiting to see what was going to happen next; and his grandparents, far away in the States, and his uncle, trapped on the SHIELD Helicarrier for the time being, and if they were all safe.

They all had people out there, and there wasn’t anything they could do to make certain they were alright.

They had jobs to do, and they were going to do them.

A sudden, strident beeping filled the Hub, coming from the computer that Ianto was working on.

_“Can anyone hear me?”_

It was a woman’s voice, crackling and hissing with static.  The large central monitor fuzzed out, the sensors that the dragon had been monitoring disappearing within the obscuring snow that overran the readings that had been there.

“Who the fuck is that?” Owen rasped. 

Once again, the entire team was gathered about the workstation, watching as the snow began to fade away. 

_“The sub-wave network is open,”_ the woman said, _“you should be able to hear me…”_

The dragon _knew_ that voice.  Ianto tapped the keyboard, attempting to bring the signal in better.  He opened up a small window at the bottom of the screen, bringing up all the scanning software he knew to activate, in order to trace the strange signal trying to make contact with them. 

The signal was buried so deep it was amazing mainframe could even read it, let alone get anything from it, and Ianto wished that Toshiko wasn’t incapacitated.  She’d have been able to trace this thing, while Ianto was totally failing at it.

The interference cleared, revealing a familiar face.

The woman held up an identification card.  _“Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister.”_

Jack let a laugh bubble up, before he said, “Yes, we know who you are.”

_“Captain Harkness,”_ Harriet Jones greeted, lowering her ID.  _“Second Jones.”_

The dragon bowed his head in acknowledgement.  The day that Harriet Jones had been deposed had been a sad one for him.  She had been a pioneer and had fully supported Torchwood and its mission, and she’d also been a pleasure to speak to.  Ianto truly felt that Great Britain – no, the world – had been worse off losing Harriet Jones.

Her being voted out of her position had eventually led to Harold Saxon taking office…and that had almost brought about the ruin of the universe.  It was just one more thing that Ianto held against the Doctor.

_“We don’t have much time,”_ the former Prime Minister said.  She was sitting at a desk, obviously in front of a computer.  In the background was what looked like her lounge, so Ianto assumed she’d been caught at home when the Daleks had invaded.  _“I’m going to see if we can all see each other.”_

She was working at her keyboard as Ianto wondered just who she had made contact with besides Torchwood.  The screen suddenly split into four sections, two of them blank at the moment; one of them showing Ianto’s own face with Jack standing just behind him, and the other Harriet Jones as she did whatever she was doing.

The top blank section cleared, and an attractive older woman appeared, with a young boy standing beside her.  Ianto, of course, knew who they were at once, although that didn’t stop Ms Jones from introducing them.

_“Sarah Jane Smith, and her son Luke I believe.  Ms Smith, this is Torchwood.”_

Patrick pushed a little to the front. “Ms Smith, my grandfather is Pat Andrews, and he’s a great admirer of your work.”

Sarah Jane Smith, journalist, alien fighter, and former Companion of the Doctor smiled at Patrick’s obvious enthusiasm.  _“It was a pleasure working with Pat…you must be Patrick, then.”_

Patrick looked pleased as punch that Ms Smith had known who he was.  “Yes, ma’am.” 

Ianto had known, from Patrick’s background, that his grandfather and Ms Smith had collaborated on an article that had been acclaimed all over Great Britain and, indeed, the world.  And Mr Andrews did seem the type to mention his grandson, since he was so very proud of Patrick.

_“The fourth contact seems to be having some trouble getting through,”_ Ms Jones’ voice cut through their conversation.    _“Let me try to boost the signal.”_

She went back to work, her hands at her keyboard.  The fourth section slowly began to come into focus, and two people faded into view.

 


	11. Chapter 11

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_Cardiff_ **

****

The entire Torchwood team erupted into happy shouts as Martha and Tom appeared.

“Nightingale!” Ianto cried, not bothering to stop the happy tears from flowing.  “I sang the Song of Mourning for you!”  He tried to sound accusing, but failed utterly.

Martha was laughing as well.  _“I think you jumped the gun just a bit, Dragon.”_

“Don’t make me do it again, alright?”

Both Harriet Jones and Sarah Jane Smith looked a bit confused by the exchange, but Ianto didn’t care nor was he going to explain.  His heart was far too filled with joy knowing that he hadn’t lost his sister to an accident with alien technology.  The hope he’d lost roared back with a vengeance; suddenly Ianto felt as if, perhaps, they really could save the Earth, if this was the sort of miracle that kept on happening.

“How?” Jack demanded, trying to sound commanding but the sheer pleasure in his voice wouldn’t let him.

_“It turned out that Project Indigo was cleverer than we thought,”_ Martha answered.  _“One second I was in Manhattan…and the next…I don’t know if it somehow tapped into my mind or something, but I was right where I wanted to be.”_

_“At the end of the world,”_ Tom said, awestruck, _“she came home to me.”_ He leaned forward a little and kissed Martha on the temple, and she beamed at him.

“It’s not the end of the world yet,” Jack vowed.

_“That’s the spirit, Captain,”_ Harriet Jones commended.

_“But the laptop just turned on,”_ Martha went on.

_“That was me,”_ Ms Jones admitted.  She once again held up her identification.  _“Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister.”_

Martha grinned.  _“I know who you are.”_

_“And this is Doctor Martha Jones, former Companion of the Doctor and currently with UNIT,”_ Harriet Jones went on.  _“Doctor Jones, this is Sarah Jane Smith, and her son, Luke.  You have the Doctor in common with each other.  Of course, you know Captain Harkness, Mr Jones, and the rest of Torchwood.”_ She looked slightly bemused; apparently, Ms Jones hadn’t been aware of their tight-knit connection.

“I’ve had the honour of following your work, Ms Smith,” Jack said. 

_“Well, I tend to stay away from you lot…too many guns.”_ She made a gesture toward her son, and Ianto understood that she hadn’t wanted to expose her son to their particular brand of violence.  He could certainly not blame her for that, but he also couldn’t help but wonder if Torchwood Three was being tarred with the same brush as Torchwood One.  Perhaps he’d have to go and visit her, after all this was over, just to clear the air.

“Might I say you’re looking good, ma’am.”  Ianto could hear the wink in his mate’s voice.

Sarah Jane looked quite pleased at the compliment.

“Jack,” the dragon warned, letting the warmth and humour in his voice show.

“Don’t make Tea Boy jealous, Harkness,” Owen snarked.  It was strange to hear him use that, and not the usual ‘Dragon Boy’, but then they were on with people who weren’t cleared to know of Ianto’s true nature.  “I don’t want to have to deal with him being all pissy in the middle of the invasion.”

The ripple of laughter around him finally settled the last of the nerves that Ianto hadn’t even been aware that had been colouring his actions.  They were his family, and with them they’d figure out what needed to be done.

_“Captain,”_ Harriet Jones was shaking her head, as amused as the team surrounding the monitor. 

_“But how did you find us all?”_ Martha asked, getting everyone back on track.

_“This,”_ the former Prime Minister said proudly, _“is the sub-wave network.  It’s a sentient piece of software that’s been programmed to search out anyone who might be able to contact the Doctor.”_

Ianto wasn’t so sure this was a good thing.  Yes, the software would be incredibly useful, but he’d like to have Toshiko to look it over, and perhaps make some changes.  Having software that can be programmed to seek out someone over long distances could actually work really well.  She’d have to check the parameters and see how it worked…

_“Can’t the Daleks trace it?”_ Martha looked very nervous, and Ianto couldn’t blame her.  If the Daleks found her family…

_“They can’t,”_ Ms Jones assured her.  _“That’s the beauty of the sub-wave.  It’s undetectable.”_

Ianto wasn’t sure how that worked.  Any signal that was out here stood the chance of being intercepted.  Once again, he wished that Toshiko wasn’t affected by the moving of the Earth.  He really wanted to ask her opinion on this network.

_“And you…invented it?”_ Sarah Jane Smith looked intrigued.  Ianto took a look at her surroundings, and he was surprised that the room she and her son were in appeared to be an attic. 

He knew that Jack kept an eye on all of the Doctor’s former Companions, and so there was a file on her and Luke, who didn’t seem to have existed until a couple of years ago.  Jack had been curious about the young man, but hadn’t really done any more research into his origins out of respect for Ms Smith. 

_“I developed it,”_ Ms Jones admitted.  _“It was actually created by the Mister Copper Foundation.”_

Now, Ianto _had_ heard of the Mister Copper Foundation.  It hadn’t been around for more than a few months, but already it was making a name for itself with its technological advances.  They knew for a fact that the aforementioned Mister Copper was an alien, marooned on Earth after the near-collision of the spaceship version of the _Titanic_ into London. 

It was yet one more thing that the Doctor had done to prevent a cataclysm.  The dragon might not care all that much for the Time Lord, but he couldn’t deny that the Doctor was a force to be reckoned with and had saved this planet many times in the past.

And here was Harriet Jones, contacting those who knew the Doctor and who might be able to get in touch with him.

Sometimes Ianto wondered if they relied on the alien far too much.

“This is all nice,” Patrick piped up, “but right now we need some sort of weapon that’ll be effective against the Daleks.”

“What was it that General Sanchez gave you, Martha?” Jack asked.  “That key thing?”

Martha held up a small, plastic square, a chain dangling from one end.  _“The Osterhagen Key.”_ Her face had lost all of its happiness, and her hand was shaking slightly.

Ianto frowned, wondering just what it was about that device that had Martha so rattled.

_“That key is not to be used under any circumstances,”_ Ms Jones snapped, her voice steel. 

“But what is it?” Jack demanded.  His mate didn’t like knowing something, and now it looked as he was being bulldozed.

_“Forget about the key,”_ Ms Jones ordered.  _“It cannot be used.”_

Whatever it was, it had Harriet Jones on the defensive.  Somehow, that worried Ianto more than the Daleks.

He didn’t even have to look at Jack to know that he was about to argue.  Anything that dangerous Torchwood should have been notified about the moment it was put into play, but UNIT was keeping them in the dark.  Ianto didn’t like it, but at least Harriet Jones knew, and was ordering Martha not to even consider it. 

_“What we need,”_ the former Prime Minister went on, firmly changing the subject, _“is the Doctor.”_

Ah yes.  Ianto had known it would come down to that.

_“Excuse me,”_ Sarah Jane Smith interjected, sounding almost apologetic, _“but didn’t the Doctor depose you?”_

_“He did.”_ Ianto had to admire Harriet Jones for not sounding bitter about it, because the dragon certainly was.  _“And I’ve wondered for a long time I was wrong.  But I stand by my actions that day, because I knew that, one day, the Earth would be in danger and the Doctor would fail to appear.”_ She sighed.  _“I told him myself and he didn’t listen.”_

“And you should also know that Torchwood doesn’t have the best relationship with him,” Ianto felt he had to add to the conversation.  Honestly, he didn’t think the Doctor would come if it was he or Jack calling.

_“I’m aware,”_ Ms Jones said.  _“But we cannot let our feelings get in the way of saving this planet.”_

_“I’ve been trying to reach him,”_ Martha said.  _“He has my phone on the TARDIS, but I haven’t been able to get through to him.”_

_“That’s why we have the sub-wave,”_ Ms Jones replied, _“to bring us all together.  To combine forces.”_

“To come up with some sort of plan,” Jack mused.

“I might have an idea.”

The weak voice had all of them turning.  Toshiko was standing shakily, her face pale, and Ianto was glad that Rhys moved forward to support her by taking her arm and leading her forward. 

Ianto was so incredibly glad to see her awake.  He gladly vacated the chair, letting her sit down in front of the screen.  She didn’t look well at all, and he knew that what he was feeling about the Earth’s distress would have been a hundredfold for her.  It was a miracle that she was even up and aware at all.

“I’m Doctor Toshiko Sato,” she introduced herself over the sub-wave, “Torchwood’s head technician.  I’ve overheard everything, and I think I know how we can get through whatever the Daleks have done to keep us from reaching the Doctor.”  It shouldn’t have surprised Ianto that she’d been listening in.

_“Thank you, Dr Sato,”_ Harriet Jones said gratefully.  _“But pardon me for saying so, you don’t look very well.”_

“I’m not.  It’s difficult to explain, but I’ll just say I’m…linked to the Earth, and I can feel how the move through space has affected her.  She’s dying, ma’am, and we need to get her back to where she belongs.”

To her credit, Harriet Jones only blinked once at what Toshiko had just admitted.  Sarah Jane Smith looked as if she wanted to ask questions, but she refrained, for which Ianto was grateful.  Explaining the Earth Dragon and their connection would have been too much at the moment.  _“What’s your suggestion?”_

“I think all we need is power,” Toshiko answered.  “I think we can boost the phone by using the power of the Rift.”

It really was an elegant solution, although Ianto didn’t know if it was such a good idea.  Messing with the Rift was never something a sane person wanted to do, but at the same time, they had no idea where they were, and what was blocking Martha’s phone.  The Rift tunnelled through both time and space, so it would give them the best bet of getting the signal out.

_“And we’ve got Mr Smith!”_ Luke Smith exclaimed excitedly.

Torchwood was well aware of Mr Smith, although they didn’t have a lot of information on the supercomputer.  The files assume that it’s alien, like Torchwood’s own mainframe, and Ianto was willing to go along with that.

Sarah Jane Smith didn’t look happy, but Luke wasn’t paying her any attention, far too enthusiastic for his idea.  _“He can link up with every phone on Earth!  He can get them all to call the Doctor at the same time.  Billions of phones, all calling the same number at once.”_

“That’s brilliant!” Jack applauded.  “Well done, Luke.”

The blush on his face was evident over the sub-wave network. 

According to their files, Mr Smith shouldn’t have been that powerful.  Ianto wondered if Jack would want to do a little more investigating after this was all over, or if he would just leave Ms Smith to do what she did so well.  He wouldn’t blame his mate either way.  Sarah Jane and her gang of children were doing good work, and they certainly didn’t want to interfere with that.  If anything, they’d want to help if they could.

“If we start transmitting,” Toshiko said quietly, “then the sub-wave network would become visible to the Daleks.”

_“And they’ll trace it back to me,”_ Ms Jones answered calmly.  _“But my life doesn’t matter.  Not if it means saving the Earth.”_

Jack snapped to attention, saluting the brave woman who’d brought them all together.  “Ma’am!”

Ms Jones smiled tiredly.  _“Thank you, Captain.  We need to get the Doctor.  There are people out there, dying on the streets, and the sooner we can get this set up, the better.”_

“Then let’s get to work,” Toshiko replied.  Her fingers began dancing on her keyboard like a concert pianist. 

Ianto stood by for her orders.  There would be plenty to do for everyone.

 

 

 


	12. Chapter 12

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_Chiswick_ **

****

Rose finally located Donna Noble’s mother and grandfather, just as the elderly man tried to disable a Dalek with a paint gun.

It failed miserably, of course.

Her gun, however, didn’t.  It left the Dalek a smoking shell and Donna Noble’s family alive.

He held out the paint gun.  “You wanna trade?”

The man had balls, Rose had to give him that.  “You’re Donna Noble’s family, right?” she confirmed.

The pair nodded, almost in unison.

“My name is Rose Tyler, and I need your help.”

They were only one street over from the house.  Rose had to wonder just what they were doing out in the middle of all this insanity, but figured they were as worried about Donna as Rose was in that moment. 

She really needed to find Donna, who could then get her in touch with the Doctor.  The world was going mad; she’d had to dodge both looters and Daleks on her way, and had had one too many close calls to count.  It was too bad the dimension cannon couldn’t lock onto Donna’s family; she’d almost had them change the focus and find the other pivot point, Clint Barton, but Donna was the one she was certain of being with the Doctor.  She had no idea what the other man was doing, as information on him had proven to be quite scarce.  The only thing they had was that the timelines were swirling around him as well as Donna Noble, and that simply wasn’t enough information to work on.

Sylvia Noble began to bustle around the kitchen as soon as they were inside the small house, putting on the kettle for them all.  Wilfred Mott – whom Rose was already predisposed to like, due to the whole paint gun thing – put the gun down on the table and pulled his phone from his pocket. 

“I tried to call her,” he said, speaking fast in his panic, “but I couldn’t get through.  She’s still with the Doctor, I know that much…and the last time I spoke with her she was on a planet called Midnight, it was made of diamonds she said.”

“What the hell are you two talking about?” Sylvia butted in, her voice incredulous.

Rose realised that she had no real idea just what her daughter had been up to…or maybe she just didn’t believe it.  Travelling with the Doctor was amazing and Rose could understand why it would seem so incredible to someone like Sylvia Noble.

Wilfred, however, was irritated.  “Look, she’s out there, sweetheart!  Our Donna…she’s out there somewhere, she’s with the Doctor, travelling the stars!  She always has been!”

Sylvia looked at him as if he was mad.  “Don’t be ridiculous!” she scoffed.

Rose had to wonder just how someone could be in so much denial.  Even Jackie, her own Mum, had accepted that Rose wasn’t on Earth any longer when she’d left with the Doctor.  Sure, that had been the second time, after she’d assumed that Rose had been kidnapped and murdered…but once she’d see the evidence for aliens, Jackie had jumped on board with both feet.

Sylvia, however, didn’t seem to be accepting things all that well, and to then be told her only daughter was somewhere out in space…alright, maybe denial wasn’t such a stretch, now that Rose got to thinking about it.

“Oh come on!” Wilfred shouted, getting truly angry.  “Open your eyes!  Look at the sky!  Look at the Daleks!  You can’t start denying things now!”

Rose was disappointed that they didn’t have a way of contacting Donna, although the whole phone thing was bothersome.  The Daleks had to have been jamming the lines or something, because knowing the Doctor he would have gimmicked things up properly in order for Donna to contact her family.  For Wilfred not to have heard from her…It made her curious as to why her own phone was working, but then she wasn’t a scientist.   

“You were my last hope,” she said, dejected, interrupting what would have become a full-on domestic.  “If I can’t find Donna…I can’t find the Doctor.”  She had the sudden urge to stamp her foot in frustration, but managed to keep the impulse buried.  “Where is he?”

She was going to have to try the second target now.  There was no choice.  At least she knew they could focus the cannon on Barton, and then she could hope that he’d lead her to the Doctor eventually.  After all, his and Donna’s timelines were supposed to be intersecting at some point.  She’d just hoped to get to the Time Lord sooner, rather than later.

A hand touched her elbow.  “We’re gonna find him,” Wilfred promised.  “We’ll find a way – “

His promise was interrupted by the unmistakable sound of a Dalek just outside.  “You will obey the Daleks without question.  The Daleks are in control.  You will obey the Daleks without question – “

And then that horrible, grating, inhuman voice was also interrupted by a strident beeping noise coming from the lounge.

Rose led the way, her gun out in case she needed to blast something.  The lounge was empty, and the sound seemed to be coming from the open laptop sitting on the coffee table.

The screen had come on, and it was filled with snow.  A voice that was extremely familiar to Rose began speaking out of it, and it took her a moment to realise it was Harriet Jones talking through the laptop’s speakers.

Rose was on her knees before the laptop, hands hovering over the keyboard, not knowing what she needed to do to bring the signal in stronger.  _“Can anyone hear me?”_

“I can!” Rose called out.  “Harriet!  It’s me!”

She glanced over her shoulder at Wilfred and Sylvia, who had decided that sitting on the sofa was a really good idea.  “Does this thing have webcam?”

Wilfred shook his head.  “She wouldn’t let me,” he admitted.  “She thinks it’s naughty.”

Oh, good lord.  That was all she needed.

“Guess this means I can’t talk to her then.”  Rose hoped that Harriet would somehow know she was there, and would respond to her even though Rose herself couldn’t answer.

The small computer screen eventually cleared, revealing the face of Harriet Jones.  To be honest, Rose hadn’t quite agreed with what the Doctor had done to her; it had changed time, from what the Doctor had once explained to her about Harriet Jones and Great Britain’s Golden Age.  That wouldn’t have happened without her being in power. 

Rose wondered what had occurred in the new timeline created by the Doctor’s actions.  She hoped it wasn’t too bad.

Harriet was speaking to someone else, and in a blink the screen divided into four sections.  Harriet was in one of them, and Rose couldn’t help grinning when she recognised Sarah Jane Smith in another.

But she was shocked to see who was in the third.

Jack Harkness.

Rose shook her head in denial.  The Doctor had told her that Jack had stayed behind, on the Gamestation, in order to help humanity rebuild Earth after the Daleks.  She’d had no reason to doubt him, although she’d always been disappointed that Jack had never said goodbye.  But then, she’d been sick from taking in all that energy from the Time Vortex, so maybe he had and she simply hadn’t remembered.

What she did remember was that he’d died on the Gamestation, murdered by the Daleks.  She’d used the Vortex energy to bring him back, something she would never regret.

But how had Jack gotten from the year 200,100 to twenty-first century Great Britain?  And how had he come to work for Torchwood, of all places?

Rose could make out the people around him.  The cute man in the chair in front had been introduced as Second Jones, but he was almost the exact double of the Dr Jones who’d been lead researcher on the Dimension Cannon; he must have been this universe’s version of the man she’d worked with.  This man, however, looked younger in the face and yet his eyes were incredibly old, and it almost reminded her of how the Doctor got sometimes, like he’d seen so much and it weighed on his soul.  He also looked a bit green around the gills, as it were, as if he was about to lose his lunch.

She watched as another man, one with thinning brown hair, dark eyes, an obvious American accent and his arm in a sling, pushed forward to say something to Sarah Jane, about his grandfather, and Sarah Jane had called the man Patrick.  There were others as well: a sour-faced man in a leather jacket; another man, with a friendly face and dark hair; a young woman with blonde hair who didn’t look old enough to be out of school, let alone working for an organisation like Torchwood…

And Clint Barton.

 


	13. Chapter 13

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_Chiswick_ **

****

Her second target worked for Torchwood.

_“The fourth contact seems to be having some trouble getting through,”_ Harriet was saying.  _“Let me try to boost the signal.”_

“That’s me!” Rose called out, even though she knew Harriet wouldn’t be able to hear her.  She had to wonder just how they’d known she was back on Earth, though. 

The last screen cleared of snow, and another woman appeared in it, a handsome, gangly man standing next to her.  Rose frowned.  Who was this?

And why was Jack’s team reacting the way they were?

_“Nightingale!”_ Jones shouted.  And was he crying?  _“I sang the Song of Mourning for you!”_

The strange woman laughed.  _“I think you jumped the gun just a bit, Dragon.”_

_“Don’t make me do it again, alright?”_

Rose was confused.  What was all this Nightingale and Dragon stuff?  This Ianto Jones was obviously close to this woman, as was Jack judging by the huge grin on his face, and the rest of the crowd at the Torchwood end of the connection. 

She paid attention to what they were talking about, but none of it made any sense.  There was something about a Project Indigo, and what Rose gathered was a teleport, and the man with Martha Jones was looking at her as if she hung the Moon. 

It would have been romantic if things weren’t quite so dire.

And then, Harriet introduced her as Martha Jones, another former Companion who was working with UNIT.

“I was a Companion, too,” she mumbled, coming to the conclusion that they hadn’t been looking for her after all.  It was a let-down, but it made sense.  If what Harriet was saying was true, then this software had homed in on her by accident, simply because it somehow knew she’d travelled with the Doctor. 

They would have no idea about the Dimension Cannon; that the walls between the dimensions were crumbling and that the entirety of creation was going to be destroyed.  She really needed to get to them, to get this information to them. 

Rose played with the idea of getting Doctor Coulson and her Doctor Jones to centre the cannon on Clint Barton, that way she’d be able to at least let Jack know what was going on. 

Instead, she listened as they discussed what was going on, and how Martha had tried to reach the Doctor but that something was blocking the mobile signal.  That something being the Daleks, of course.

Then the Jones on the other end of the network surrendered his chair to another woman, this one Japanese and who looked terrible.  Her face was pale, there were dark circles under her eyes, and if Rose had to guess she was barely keeping herself upright as she introduced herself as Doctor Toshiko Sato.

Harriet and Sarah Jane both looked confused when this Toshiko person started going on about feeling the Earth dying, but Martha Jones was nodding along, as if she knew precisely what she was being told.  How could someone feel something like that?  Sure, the Doctor had once claimed that he could feel the planet spinning under his feet, but that was a Time Lord thing, right?  And the Doctor was the last one of those. 

It was then that Rose put a few things together.  The readings from the Dimension Cannon had put Clint Barton in Cardiff.  There’d been a Rift in time and space there; the Doctor had used it to refuel and it had nearly exploded twice: once with Gwyneth and the other time during that mess with Margaret Blaine.  Jack’s version of Torchwood – because London’s had been practically destroyed – must have something to do with that Rift. 

And now, this Toshiko person was saying they could use that power to break through whatever was blocking the phone signals and get in touch with the Doctor. 

Rose didn’t know who Mr Smith was, but she was willing to bet he was some sort of computer if he could somehow access all the phones in the world.  It made her wonder where K-9 was, and if the dog was still around somewhere.

So much had changed.  Well, she could catch up once she met up with the Doctor and they got this mess sorted.

At that point Toshiko pointed out that the network would become visible when they began transmitting. 

Rose wanted so much to say something as Harriet answered her.  Did she really mean to sacrifice herself so the Doctor would be called?

“Marvellous woman,” Wilfred exclaimed, making Rose jump; she’d forgotten he was even there.  “I voted for her!”

“You did not!” Sylvia accused.

Rose didn’t have to see it to recognise a sheepish silence when she heard one.

She had a ringside seat as Torchwood went to work.  Jack began to give orders as Toshiko explained what they needed to do.  Even though Rose had never met this Toshiko Sato, she was worried about the scientist; she did look on her verge of collapse.  As the team went about their tasks, this universe’s version of Ianto Jones put a hand on Dr Sato’s shoulder. 

_“You going to be alright?”_ he asked softly.  Rose was pretty sure he hadn’t meant for this sub-wave thing to pick up his words, but it had.

_“I should be asking you that question,”_ Toshiko answered, her fingers still working the keys at the computer.

_“I’m not as connected to the Earth as you are,”_ the other man said. 

_“It’s…hard.”_ In the sudden bustle of activity at Torchwood, these two were a quiet spot in the storm.  _“How about the others? Kathy?”_

_“They’re all down as well.  It’s…all four of you, Tosh.  The planet moving affected all of you.”_

Rose frowned.  Something was definitely going on, and she really wished they’d say something that would clue her in.

_“Ianto,”_ Martha butted in, _“you and Tosh aren’t being as quiet as you think you are.”_ She also sounded very worried.

Even over the sub-wave, Rose could see Toshiko – or Tosh, must have been her nickname – blushed slightly.  But then, she was so pale anything like that would have been obvious.  _“Thanks, Martha.”_

Harriet Jones wasn’t reacting to their conversation, but Rose could tell she was listening intently as she worked as well.  Sarah Jane had taken her son – and that must be new, because she certainly hadn’t mentioned _that_ the last time they’d seen each other – off to the side and was speaking to him.  The young man nodded in understanding, and then they moved back to the centre of the monitor. 

Rose was just a bit bothered by Martha cutting the two of them off, just when the conversation had been getting interesting.

On the Torchwood side of the sub-wave came the sounds of the team calling out things, stuff that Rose didn’t quite get, but then technology wasn’t really her strong suit.  Yes, she’d been involved with the Dimension Cannon project, but she hadn’t done any of the actual work.  Mostly it was the scientists picking her brain for anything she might have overheard the Doctor say about multiple dimensions, and her hovering.  Actually, them calling to inform her that the cannon had activated had really been more of a courtesy, even though she’d long known she’d be the one to do the testing.  After all, it had been her dream to finally come home; any other application that might have come from the Dimension Cannon would have been up to Torchwood in her universe.

She trusted Pete to make the right decisions, but at the same time once she was back with the Doctor it wouldn’t really matter all that much to her.

Sarah Jane’s maybe computer is linked into things, thanks to Toshiko and Luke, and the sub-wave is opened.

_“Sending the Doctor’s number,”_ Martha said, fiddling with her phone.

The number appeared on the screen.

Rose quickly put it into her phone.

A rather posh man’s voice said, _“Calling the Doctor.”_

“So am I.”  Rose was dialling even before she finished speaking.

Behind her, she heard the sound of other phones as well, and she knew that Wilfred and Sylvia were doing the same thing.

_“I think we have something!”_ Rose heard Jack exclaim.

That proper British voice said it was raising the power to two hundred percent, and Rose watched as sparks flashed within the pane that showed Sarah Jane and Luke, and they both jumped back out of the way. 

Rose kept dialling.  She closed her eyes, coming as close to praying as she ever would, “Find me, Doctor.  Find me…”

_“Ms Jones…Harriet…”_ Toshiko murmured, sounding very sorry, _“a source as locked onto your signal.”_ She paused, swallowing.  _“They’ve found you.”_

_“I know,”_ the former Prime Minister said, continuing to work at her keyboard.  _“I’m using the sub-wave to mask your transmission.  Keep going.”_

Heart dropping into her shoes, Rose kept dialling and redialling, knowing she had to get through to the Doctor to stop what was about to happen.  Harriet had purposely set herself up to be tracked, she had to have done, just so Torchwood and Sarah Jane could continue to attempt to find the Time Lord.  They were going to come for her, and there wasn’t a thing anyone could do to stop it.

Unless the Doctor answered his damned phone.

A strident, _“Exterminate!”_ came from the speaker, and a flash blotted out Harriet’s side of the connection for a brief second.  She didn’t stop working, however, and Rose could only watch as the inevitable occurred.

Harriet Jones was going to die.

The Daleks had managed to find her, despite everything.

Toshiko must have seen the same thing that Rose did, because she visibly flinched.  There was a gasp from Martha Jones, and Sarah Jane had a hand in front of her mouth.  This universe’s version of Ianto Jones was staring out of the screen, his old eyes sad, and, strangely, he began to sing softly in another language, one that Rose wished she had the TARDIS to translate.  The grief that it carried within it made tears well up in Rose’s eyes even though she had no idea what it was even about.

Ianto Jones was mourning.

Harriet Jones looked up even as she was pressing a button on her keyboard and pushing her chair away from her desk. 

_“Doctor Sato, I’m transferring the sub-wave network to Torchwood.  Use it wisely.”_ Her face was utterly calm as she stood.  _“Good luck, and tell the Doctor he chose his companions well.”_

_“Thank you for your service, Harriet Jones,”_ Jack said sombrely.  _“It’s been an honour.”_

Harriet nodded once in response.  Then she turned from the computer and stepped away, facing to the side where the flash had happened.  In the pane, her back was straight and proud as she faced down the Daleks that had blown their way into her home. 

She lifted her identification one more time.  _“Harriet Jones…former Prime Minister.”_

_“Yes. We know who you are.”_

It would have been funny if it hadn’t been stated so flatly by the horrific, metallic voice of a Dalek.  Rose wanted to do something, but she was trapped there, in the house of Donna Noble, witnessing this unspeakable tragedy with two near-strangers, and completely helpless.

_“Oh, you know of no human,”_ Harriet returned defiantly.  _“And that will be your downfall.”_

There was a slight pause, as if the entire planet was holding its breath.

_“EXTERMINATE!”_

The section of screen that had once held Harriet Jones went blank.

A single tear tracked down Rose’s cheek.

Then the sub-wave network flickered.

And a very familiar face appeared just where Harriet’s had been.

 

 


	14. Chapter 14

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_Cardiff_ **

****

The entire Hub was silent as the section of monitor that had once held the image of Harriet Jones went to snow.

Ianto stopped singing.

“We have complete control of the sub-wave network,” Toshiko broke the silence, sounding tired. 

Jack wondered if it had all been worth it, in the end.

As soon as that thought had crossed his mind, the area where Harriet had been just moments before flickered, and a face that Jack had thought he’d never see again faded into being.

It was the Doctor.

He wasn’t alone.  A red-headed woman was with him, and they were peering into the screen as if they were going to physically come through it.  From the background Jack could tell the TARDIS hadn’t changed since the last time he’d been on board, and he wasn’t sure if that was good, or bad.

Jack knew that the Doctor’s current Companion was a woman named Donna Noble; Martha had shared that information just after that mess with ATMOS and before she’d been so quickly transferred to New York.  He’d done a bit of a check on her, just out of curiosity, and knew that she’d been a temp at H.C. Clements – one of Torchwood London’s many fronts – and had met the Doctor because of the incident with the Racnoss.  UNIT was still cleaning up that particular mess, and Jack was content to let them at it…as long as any alien tech they recovered ended up back with Torchwood.

Jack didn’t speak.  He really didn’t know what to say.  They’d parted under such strained circumstances after the time paradox had been broken, after Ianto had killed the Master after declaring a Vow of Vengeance against the mad Time Lord for his treatment of Jack…and of the entire planet.  It hadn’t helped that the Great Dragons and their Friends had spoken for the Earth, and had backed Ianto’s action.  The Doctor had felt betrayed, Jack could see it, but he couldn’t bring himself to condemn his mate for anything he’d done.

Martha and Sarah Jane, however, began talking over each other in their haste to fill the Doctor in.

_“Where the hell have you been – “_

_“It’s the Daleks, they’re taking people out of their homes – “_

_“They’re taking them up to their spaceship – “_

The Doctor was grinning like a maniac.  _“Look at you all!  Such clever people…”_

Jack felt slightly condescended to.  Which was strange considering the Doctor had used that exact tone of voice many times in the past, in his old regeneration, and he could tell the Time Lord was impressed.

_“Sarah Jane!  And Martha Jones!”_ His eyes flickered toward Jack, and they hardened slightly.  _“And Torchwood!”_

_“And who’s…”_ Donna pointed at the screen, right at Jack. _“He?”_

He didn’t even get to answer before the Doctor was answering.  _“That’s Jack.  And just…don’t.”_

Now Jack was feeling insulted.

Donna, though, didn’t seem to recognise what the Doctor had just implied.  She was smiling.  _“It’s like an outer space Facebook!”_

Jack couldn’t help but hear Toshiko’s offended snort.  He’d been a witness to her rants about Facebook and internet security and how it would be so very easy to take down the entire platform with a single line of code.

“I notice she didn’t ask about the rest of us,” Ianto whispered in Jack’s ear, his laugher a puff of hot breath on his neck.

Jack didn’t know if the Doctor or Donna heard him, because the monitor fritzed out, and each of the four sections was gone.

Toshiko cursed under her breath.  “Someone’s hijacking the network,” she snarled.  Her fingers pounded her keyboard possibly harder than they needed to as she attempted to get the others back.

“Can you block it?” Jack asked.

“Not sure,” his technician replied, frustrated.  “No one should be able to hack it, if what Harriet Jones had claimed is true, and I don’t know enough about it yet to confirm that.”

The picture on the screen began to reinitialise, but instead of the split screen before, a single figure took up the entire monitor.

The being was wizened, with age or damage Jack wasn’t sure, but was most likely both.  The creature’s eyes were gone, melded over with wrinkled and sunken flesh.  A single blue light rested against its forehead, glowing balefully from the image, and a strange sort of head piece arched over the back of the bald head.

Jack shivered.  While he’d never seen this alien before, he knew who it was even before the Doctor’s voice identified it.

Davros.

The creator of the Daleks.

_“Your voice is different,”_ Davros said, his own a strange combination of organic and mechanical, _“and yet, your arrogance is unchanged.”_

_“But you’re dead,”_ he heard Ms Smith gasp.  It seemed as if they still had audio with the other people on the network.

Jack had read the file; the one written by Commodore Harry Sullivan about his travels with the Doctor and Ms Smith.  One of those trips had been to Skaro, at the very beginning of the Daleks, and how they’d met Davros.  The report had claimed that Davros had been killed by his own creations, but Jack knew differently.  There were terrible tales out there of Davros and his creations, and Jack had researched every single one of them.  If a person knew their enemy, it was the first step in overcoming your fear of them.

That hadn’t actually worked.  Jack was still quite terrified of the Daleks, but he suspected that he would carry that fear for the rest of his unnaturally long life.  His first death had been at the blasters of the Daleks, and that trauma wouldn’t go away.

_“Welcome to my new Empire, Doctor.”_ Davros was practically purring, and even without eyes Jack could see just how pleased he was.

“A new Dalek Empire,” Ianto whispered, horrified.  Jack reached between them and took his mate’s hand, understanding just how the dragon felt.  The Daleks at Canary Wharf had been bad enough, but for them to have regained so much power…this was the sort of empire that had fought the Time Lords and very nearly beat them.

_“It’s only fitting that you should be a witness to the resurrection and triumph of my creations,”_ Davros went on. 

The Doctor was silent.  It was even more disturbing than Davros’ quiet madness. 

Jack could hear Donna speaking, talking the Doctor down from the shock he must have been feeling.  Despite his lingering anger at the Time Lord Jack did feel sorry for him, to be facing an enemy he’d long thought dealt with, in the rubble of his own home.

_“But, you’re dead.”_ The Doctor’s voice was totally wrecked. 

Jack almost felt bad for listening in.  This was something that was extremely personal, and they shouldn’t be witnessing it, even if it was only from Davros’ side. 

But they needed to know what Davros had planned, and what the Daleks were doing.  He could apologise later if it was needed.

_“In the first year of the Time War,”_ the Doctor continued, _“at the gates of Elysium.  I saw your command ship fly into the jaws of the Nightmare Childe.  I tried to save you…”_

Jack felt Ianto grip his hand harder.  He didn’t need to see his mate to know that the dragon was bothered by that.  Jack couldn’t blame him; Davros had wrought chaos and death throughout time and space, and the Doctor had wanted to rescue him from whatever this Nightmare Childe was. 

And yet, the immortal could understand, in a way.  The words, _Everyone lives,_ floated through his memory, and the sight of the Doctor’s former regeneration, Jack’s Doctor, practically dancing with the knowledge that he’d been able to save everyone who’d been affected by the nanogenes during World War Two.  To the Doctor, all life was precious, even that of an enemy who’d tried to destroy the universe.

But that was the difference between the Doctor and Jack, and Ianto as well.  There couldn’t just be blanket forgiveness, especially when that forgiveness was something the Doctor didn’t have the right to give, to include the victims of those he would absolve of culpability.  The Doctor sometimes couldn’t see that. 

It had been never more evident in his behaviour with the Master, after that Year. 

It hadn’t been within the Time Lord’s power to forgive the Master for what he’d done to anyone else except himself.  Certainly, Jack could let the Doctor forgive the Master for what he’d done to the Time Lord, but he simply couldn’t do that for the entire planet.  And, when the Great Dragons and their Friends had pointed that out, the Doctor had acted as if they didn’t matter.

The one main extenuating circumstance had been that the Doctor hadn’t been alone any longer, that there was now another Time Lord to share his loneliness with.  The problem with that being the Master would never have seen it that way.  He would have eventually escaped, and then the entirety of creation would have been in danger once more.  And, it would have been very probable that the Doctor himself would have been a victim of the Master’s insanity as well.

Jack didn’t know if the Doctor’s attempted rescue of Davros would have led to the creator of the Daleks to justice for the horror he’d unleashed onto the universe from that bunker of Skaro, but that was a bit too late now. 

He glanced around at his team, as the Doctor and Davros continued to talk.  Each of them had various looks of confusion on their faces, and he couldn’t blame them.  Some of what was going on over the sub-wave was above his own knowledge, despite Jack’s on research into the Doctor’s doings.  He hadn’t been present during the Time War, as those two had, and had no reference for their conversation. 

However, he didn’t miss it when Davros claimed to have grown his new Daleks out of the cells of his own body.  Nor did he miss his team’s reaction to seeing Davros’ body picked apart, his organs showing, bragging about how pure the Dalek race was now. 

It made Jack a bit ill, to be honest.  Davros was truly mad, cannibalising his own flesh to create the most hated race throughout space and time.  In a way, it made him think of the Brecon Beacons, and the horror that had hidden within a sleepy Welsh village.

_“They are the new Daleks,”_ Davros gloated.  _“True Daleks.  They are my children, Doctor.  And what do you have?”_

_“After all this time,”_ the Doctor managed to say, still sounding utterly shocked, _“after everything we’ve seen…everything we’ve lost…”_ He paused, and Jack wished he could see the Time Lord’s face, but all that was on the screen was the hideously scarred face of a madman.  _“I have only one thing to say to you…”_ And then his voice changed, just before the sub-wave cut out entirely, full of almost manic glee, _“Bye!”_

It was startling, but Jack couldn’t allow himself to stand there.  He knew the Doctor well enough, that there was only one place he’d be going to.

“We need to find the Doctor,” he snapped.  He leaned over Toshiko, close enough to feel her slight trembling.  He didn’t want to ask her for anything else, but he had to.  “Can you find him?”

She grinned, and it was an ugly thing, a rictus full of teeth and pain.  “Just watch me.”

 


	15. Chapter 15

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_London_ **

****

Rose closed the laptop and then jumped to her feet.  This was her chance. 

The Doctor could only have been headed to Earth.  He’d have been following Torchwood’s signal. 

But there was no guarantee that the Daleks wouldn’t have been able to trace the TARDIS.  She just needed to get there first.

She fetched her gun, from where she’d set it on the dining room table.  As she slid it over her shoulder, she had her phone out. 

Coulson answered before it had even completed the first ring. 

“I need another shift,” she said.  “Centre me on the TARDIS, as fast as you can.”

_“Stand by,”_ came the sharp reply.

Her heart was positively thundering.  Rose took a deep breath, trying to reign in her excitement, but it just wouldn’t be contained.  She was finally going to see the Doctor again!

Both Wilfred and Sylvia were looking at her, and it was then that Rose realised she was practically bouncing in place.  “Right,” she said, her voice high-pitched.  It would have been embarrassing if she’d particularly cared.  “I’m going to find him.”  She grinned crazily.  “Wish me luck!”

It was the end of the world, and she was still acting like a giddy schoolgirl going on a date with her crush. 

Sylvia still seemed a little wary, but she nodded.  “Good luck!”

Wilfred had this look on his face, as if his words were some sort of prayer.  “Good luck, sweetheart.”

Rose felt the familiar tugging that accompanied the shift, and suddenly she was gone from their lounge.

She appeared on a completely deserted street.  Abandoned cars were splayed across the road, a couple of them looking as if they’d been in some sort of fire.  Daleks, it must have been, and she remembered Sarah Jane saying that the Daleks were rounding up people.  They had to have fired upon the vehicles.

She didn’t look inside.  She didn’t want to.

Eyes tracked down the street, searching for that familiar blue box that had been her home for such a long time.  Rose didn’t notice it at first, and then…there it was, down the block, looking so innocuous, as if it belonged there.

Donna Noble was standing just outside, in a purple blouse with a long leather coat.  She was partially obscured by a tall man with wild brown hair, his back to Rose, his own coat almost reaching the tops of the high-top trainers he was wearing.

Donna must have noticed her standing there, because she moved her head in Rose’s direction.  She said something, but Rose wasn’t a lip reader, but whatever it was it made the man turn around.

Of course, it was the Doctor.  She would have known him anywhere.

For a split second, Rose was stunned into motionlessness.  Seeing him, after all this time…it was like a punch to the heart.  She’d so often dreamed of seeing him again, of breathing the same air, of being able to touch and be touched in return…it had been her fantasy the entire time she’d been in that alternate dimension, and even though there had been the work on the Dimension Cannon a part of her had despaired of ever being back on the same planet as him.

He hadn’t changed a bit.

Realising that, it was the impetus for her feet to start moving.  Rose wasn’t even aware that she was running until she was most of the way down the street, and the Doctor was running toward her as well, the tails of his coat flying behind him as he sprinted closer.

Every emotion she’d ever felt for this man had narrowed down into one sharp, painful throb just under her breastbone, like a stitch in the side that one would get from running forever.  And she had been; she’d been running toward this moment from the very second the dimension walls had sealed, leaving her trapped on the opposite side, separated from the one man she’d wanted to spend the rest of her life with.

And he looked to be as glad to see her as she was of him.

That joy was oh-so-ever short-lived.

Neither one of them saw the Dalek rolling toward the end of the street until it was far too late.

The sound of its gun echoed over the stillness of the street.  That deadly blue light struck the Doctor in the side, and he went down onto the pavement, hard. 

Rose came to a stop, unable to breathe let alone move.  She’d come this far, and the object of her near-obsession for so many years had just been shot by a Dalek.

She had her gun slung around and in her hands without even thinking about it, but she didn’t have time to use it.

A strange, soft whistling sound passed by her right ear, and she instinctively ducked.  As she watched, the object that had flown by her – an arrow, her brain supplied in disbelief – hit the Dalek right in the eyestalk.

It exploded.

There was a high-pitched whine from the Dalek as its single eye was destroyed.

It was followed by another whine, this was long and strident.  A bright blue beam followed the path of the arrow, striking the body of the Dalek.

It blew into a million pieces.

Just like Rose’s heart.

Someone ran past her, and she recognised Jack by the blue of the RAF coat, like the one he’d had when she’d first met him.  Another man was with him, this one in a black jacket and jeans, with a quiver on his back and a bow in his hand, arrow nocked to the string in readiness.

That got Rose moving.

Somehow, she managed to get to the Doctor before the others, and just as Donna Noble was sliding to her knees beside the Doctor’s head.  She dumped her gun onto the concrete and knelt beside him, stroking his head with her hand. 

The Doctor’s face was twisted in pain, and he whimpered slightly even as he was staring up at her, wonder in his eyes.  He tried to smile, but it was more of a grimace as the agony at being shot ground him down.

“I’ve got you,” she choked, tears clogging her throat.  She also attempted a smile, but she knew it just didn’t work.  She wanted to scream and rail at the universe, for letting them get this close and yet to take him away from her now.

“Rose,” he whispered her name like it was the most precious thing in the world.

She brushed the hair away from his forehead.  “Hi,” was all she could think to say.

“Long time, no see.”  His voice was weak, filled with pain.

“Well, you know…been busy.”  It wasn’t at all what she’d wanted to say, but her brain just came up with that.

The Doctor convulsed sharply, wringing a gasp from him.

“Oh god, please don’t die…”  She didn’t have the Bad Wolf with her this time.  She couldn’t use the Vortex to bring him back, like she had Jack.  Rose was helpless to stop what was going to happen next.

A hand tucked itself under her arm, tugging her up gently.  “We need to get him into the TARDIS.”  It was Jack, and Rose was torn between fighting him and hugging him to bits.

The second man – and a small part of her mind that was still rational told her it was Clint Barton – handed his bow to Jack and was levering the Doctor to his feet, Donna helping.  Jack had Rose up, and she reached down for her gun before letting him lead her, covering them all with the truly enormous gun he had slung over his shoulder by a wide strap. 

The TARDIS doors were open by the time she got there, her feet taking her where she needed to go without Rose even thinking about it.  She was too busy concentrating on the Doctor, hanging limply from Clint Barton’s grasp on his waist as the archer slung him into the time machine and up the ramp to the console.  He set the Time Lord down onto the grating carefully, and Rose was kneeling beside him once more, barely registering the TARDIS doors being closed.

Rose wasn’t even aware of the tears spilling from her eyes, but the agony was too much to keep inside.  Donna was beside her, looking equally upset, demanding that something be done to help the Doctor, whose movements were getting weaker.

This wasn’t how this was supposed to end.  Rose was supposed to find the Doctor, help him save the universe, and then they were going to go travelling again.  He wasn’t supposed to be dying on the floor of his TARDIS as the Daleks tore the Earth apart.

“Rose,” Jack’s commanding voice broke into her emotional state, “you need to step away.  He’s dying, and you know what happens next.”

“What do you mean?” Donna demanded.

It was obvious the Doctor hadn’t gotten around to explaining regeneration to her yet. 

“But you can’t,” Rose whimpered.  “I’ve come all this way…”

Jack’s hands were on her once more, pulling her away from the Doctor.  Already Rose could see the tell-tale golden glow skittering across his skin like a temporal St Elmo’s Fire, and it was all she could do not to fight against her friend as she was dragged away from the man she loved.

“What do you mean?” Donna repeated, sounding a combination of pissed off and panicked.  “What’s gonna happen now?”

Jack had his arm around Rose on one side, and Donna on the other.  Rose watched as the glow intensified.  “When he’s…dying,” she swallowed on that single word, “his body repairs itself.  He changes…” 

God, this couldn’t be happening! 

The force of his regeneration had the Doctor on his feet.  Throwing his head back, he cried out as the gold surrounded him…

 

 


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm posting two chapters today; originally these two were a single chapter, but LJ's posting limit meant it had to be cut in half. So Chapter Seventeen is up as well. :)

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_Cardiff_ **

****

When he’d volunteered to work at Torchwood while they were down two people, Clint Barton had had at least some sort of clue what he was in for.

After what had happened in Geneva, he’d been levelled up just on the basis of him now knowing about Torchwood.  While Coulson might have taken his written report, it had been Fury who’d insisted on him spilling what _wasn’t_ in it, as if the Director had known that Clint had purposely left out certain things.   

But then, he’d been prepared for that, if just from Ianto’s comments after the events.

Still, Clint had been cagey about the fact that he’d stumbled onto the last dragon in existence.  He was pretty sure that Fury had managed to put two and two together, but then Nick Fury was a suspicious bastard who would have made his own enquiries after that debrief.  So yeah, while Clint hadn’t come right out and said, _‘By the way, Boss, I happen to know that Torchwood’s Second in Command is a mythical creature who can breathe fire,’_ he was certain that he’d somehow found out.

They hadn’t actually discussed it, though.  Which was a balm on Clint’s conscience because he really liked Ianto, Toshiko, and Martha Jones.  Liking Patrick went without saying, because _duh_ , he was Phil’s nephew and a generally cool person who he could talk to about different types of bows and Patrick actually _understood_.

After he’d gained a level, that meant Clint had gone looking for more information on the mysterious Torchwood and could do so without getting into trouble for it.  He’d found it, in spades: about how it was founded; why it was founded; that there was a guy out there called a Time Lord who saved the planet on a regular basis because he liked humans so much; Canary Wharf and what a shit-show _that_ had been; the fact that Great Britain had more alien invasions than the rest of the world _combined_ ; the new Director who was rumoured to also be some sort of alien, which, after being around Jack Harkness for a couple of weeks, was inclined to believe; and the fact that Harkness and Jones were in a committed relationship which, okay, Clint had already known about just from those two days in Geneva, but what he hadn’t known was that everyone in the intelligence community had been shocked when it became not-so-common knowledge.  Because, apparently, Jack Harkness was a well-known flirt and would sleep with anything as long as it had a pulse.

Coulson had also read him in on things, since his handler was the liaison to the organisation and was on…well, not a first-name basis, but was at least friendly, with a certain Ianto Jones.  He’d shared that his own family had had dealings with this Doctor alien and had lived to tell the tale…although it was extremely highly classified, and to be honest would have made Coulson’s relatives even cooler if they hadn’t already been awesome in Clint’s eyes.  Coulson had also heard things from his nephew, and actually seemed proud of the fact that Patrick now had a higher security clearance than he did and of course hadn’t shared _everything_.

Clint suspected that the whole ‘who had the higher clearance’ thing was some sort of weird competition amongst Coulson’s family, and that Patrick had won it by an extremely wide margin.

And, while Clint had been generally accepted amongst the Torchwood team, he was pretty sure there were still things he had no clue about.  He was fine with that, actually.

So, yeah, the whole alien thing wasn’t a surprise. 

What _had_ been was the fact that there were aliens out there who could move an entire fucking planet to who knew where and keep everyone alive on it at the same time.  For reasons no one had a clue about.

The idea of alien invasions had been scary to begin with, but to actually be in the middle of one…well, Clint wasn’t ashamed to say he was completely and utterly terrified.

It did help that his temporary teammates seemed to be in the same boat, which made this whole thing even more scary, if Clint was being honest.  Especially how Harkness had reacted when he’d found out what the aliens were.  If Clint were a betting man…oh yeah, he was…he would have wagered that Harkness had had dealings with the Daleks before, and hadn’t come out a winner.  Ianto had seemed to know about it, judging from all the comforting that was going on.

But then, if he hadn’t already known from that utterly fantastic mating thing he’d been invited to that the pair of them were devoted to each other, his first day on the job would have given the game away.

He had to admit, a lot of what was going on went over his head, and Clint found himself following orders, which seemed to be the safe bet.  He’d been pitifully relieved that Phil was alright in New York when he’d spoken to him, and had barely refrained from telling his lover that he loved him; they were very careful about that sort of thing while on the job, but then the world had been ending and Clint regretted that he hadn’t, just because of that.  He was half a world away from Phil and if they were killed because of the weird looking homicidal aliens then Clint would have wanted to make sure Phil knew how he felt.

But he hadn’t.  _Damnit_.

Clint might not have known everything that was going on, but that didn’t stop him from absorbing it all and trying to make it fit.  Some of it did; he’d found out about Toshiko and her connection to the planet very early on, so her collapse meshed with all the information he was gaining.  Rhys was also pretty good at explaining things; as was Patrick.  What they themselves knew, of course.  There were things going on that they hadn’t been too sure about, either, which made Clint feel slightly better about being ignorant.

Still, by the time the Doctor had finally showed up, Clint thought he had a pretty good read on the situation.

So, when Harkness began bustling about the Hub he had a fairly sure idea of what was going to happen next.

Ianto confirmed his supposition when he pulled their boss to the side and said, “You have to go to him.”

Harkness sighed. “I don’t want to.  You know he’s not going to be happy to see me, not after the Master.”

They were basically speaking in riddles, but that didn’t stop Clint from working out that Harkness and this Doctor person didn’t have the greatest relationship, and it had to do with whoever had the unmitigated _chutzpah_ to call himself the Master.  Sounded like something out of a BDSM club to him…and Clint knew about those sorts of things, having gone undercover as a Sub once and not really enjoying it all that much.  The only thing that had made him even slightly comfortable about it had been that Natasha had been playing his Dom, and he trusted her with his life.

He wondered where she was.  Clint hoped she was alright.

“If you think he’d be unhappy to see you,” Ianto said wryly, “you can imagine how he’d react to _me_.”

“Besides, I need you to stay here and watch after everyone.”  Jack touched Ianto’s face gently.  It made Clint’s heart ache a little.  “I’ll be fine.”

Clint didn’t want to interrupt, but he was stepping up before his brain could catch up with his body.  “I’m going with you.”

 

 


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second chapter for today. :)

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_Cardiff_ **

****

Jack shook his head.  “It’s going to be dangerous enough with just me – “

“Then you need someone to watch your back,” Clint pointed out.  “If the Daleks get you, who will do what needs to be done then?”

Jack and Ianto gave each other a look that Clint knew was some sort of silent communication that only people who knew each other really well could pull off.  It was most likely something they weren’t about to tell him, and hey, everyone had secrets so he wasn’t about to butt in and demand to know just what they weren’t saying.

Then Ianto said, “Take him with you, Jack.  I’d feel better if you had some sort of back-up, and Patrick hasn’t been cleared for duty yet.”

Clint felt almost proud that Ianto would trust him like that, especially when comparing him to Patrick, who was a weapons’ ninja and Phil Coulson’s nephew, for crying out loud. 

“We only have one weapon that’ll work against the Daleks,” Jack argued. 

“You mean that big gun that came through the Rift a couple of weeks ago?” the dragon asked.  “Jack, we don’t even know if it’ll work…”

“But going up against Daleks with arrows?”

“Hey,” Clint interrupted, “Tosh and me have been working on some special arrows.  Plus,” he grinned, “I know where Patrick keeps the explosives he’s not supposed to have.”

“How do you know about that?” Patrick squawked, which told Clint that the entire team was now paying attention to the three of them.

Clint rolled his eyes.  “Do you really have to ask?”

Jack huffed.  “Seems like Patrick’s been getting sneaky.  I approve.”

The archer knew that Patrick had gotten into trouble over the diplomatic packages his mother had been sending him, with all the things that go ‘boom’.  Apparently, the bosses didn’t mind that Patrick had high explosives as long as they didn’t know about it, which was a cool way of covering their asses while getting their hands on bombs.

Ianto was shaking his head.  “Well, we did tell him not to let us catch him.”  Then he turned serious.  “Is there anything there that will penetrate a Dalek’s shell?”

Patrick’s face went sly.  “I’d certainly think so.  Although I’m sure Clint’s already raided my stash for his arrows.”

Clint grinned, not saying anything.  After all, he didn’t need to.

Instead, he met Jack’s gaze.  “You need someone to watch your back out there.  I want to do it.”

Jack sighed.  “Fine.  But if something happens to you, I’m going to have to explain to Fury and Coulson and I don’t want to have to do that.”

He didn’t respond to that, but then Jack did know as well as Clint himself did that there was no guarantee either of them would be coming back from this.  Which would leave Ianto to explain.

Clint liked Ianto too much to force him to do that.  Just meant he’d have to make sure he _did_ come back.

“Jack,” Toshiko called out, “I’ve located the Doctor’s TARDIS.  It’s in London.”

“How are we going to get there?” Clint asked.  After all, it wasn’t as if they had a handy Quinjet available, even if the Daleks wouldn’t have shot them down on sight.

Jack tapped the fancy-looking leather band that was buckled on his wrist.  Clint had been curious what it was, since Jack already wore a watch on his opposite arm. “With this.”

Ianto frowned.  “But it doesn’t work.”

“It will once I speak to Martha.”  Jack winked, then pulled out his phone. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Clint saw Rhys motioning to Ianto, and the dragon moved to join the Welshman at the computer where Deborah was sitting, looking pale.  He didn’t need to hear the conversation to know something was up, and judging from the shake of Ianto’s head they had no intention of telling anyone about it.

No…they didn’t intend on telling _Jack_ about it.

That could only mean one thing…

The Daleks had found them.

Ianto looked straight at Clint, and once more there was that shake of his head.  He was telling Clint not to say anything, and to go with Jack when he left to find the Doctor.

For a split second, Clint wanted to change his mind, to make his stand there at the Hub.  But he knew he couldn’t, and that small gesture was Ianto ordering him to accompany Jack wherever he went.  And although he technically didn’t work for Torchwood, Clint did think of Ianto as a really good boss and he was perfectly fine in following the dragon’s commands.

He turned away to watch as Jack spoke on the phone, the flap on his wrist band open and he was poking at something underneath.  Clint hadn’t seen what that strap actually was; Jack kept it on all of the time, and now Clint was realising that it had to have been some sort of tech, probably from the future.  Yeah, he knew about Jack being from the 51st century and was from another planet; that had been one of the first things he’d learned about this temporary boss when he’d come to work there at the Hub.  Jack didn’t seem to keep it a secret, which was a surprise.  After all, if it got out that Jack was from the future, wouldn’t questionable people come looking for him?  Or maybe it was just in front of his team that Jack was so open about his past?

Clint was warmed by his trust. 

“That’s the teleport base code,” he was saying to Martha, “and that’s all I need to get this thing working again…Oscillating four and nine…”  He poked around at the tiny mechanism again.  “Thank you, Martha Jones.”  He grinned.  “Yes, I’ll be careful.  See ya later, Nightingale.”  He flipped his phone closed and then ducked into his office, to return with the largest gun Clint had ever seen.  It was easily the size of a five-year-old child and was so obviously alien.  Clint’s hands itched to get a hold of it.

But wait…that wrist band thing was a teleport?  How cool was that?

Ianto had approached once more, and this time he had Jack’s RAF coat in both hands, holding it out for his mate.  Jack slipped his arms into it, juggling the gun as he did so.  Once it was on, he tugged the gun’s strap over one shoulder.  Then he looked at Clint.  “Well, you coming?”

It took Clint a few seconds to grab his bow and quiver from the armoury, and then he was shrugging his own jacket on, the quiver settling onto his back like his best friend.  Which, if he was admitting it, it really was. 

“We’ll be back,” Jack assured the team, who had all gathered around them.  They were all silent, and Clint knew why…by now Ianto must have told them that the Daleks were on their way. 

It hit him suddenly, that this might be the last time he saw any of them.

This wasn’t the same as the missions he’d been sent on for SHIELD.  This was aliens and shit he’d never been trained for. 

These people, though…they had been.  This was their jobs, and they were getting on with it, even though the Daleks were coming and they were sending him and Jack out to meet this Doctor.

But what really hit him was that Ianto was trusting Clint to look after his mate.  Since Ianto couldn’t go, he was letting Clint go and watch Jack’s back.  Clint had no idea how he’d earned that sort of trust from the dragon, but he wasn’t about to let Ianto down.  He’d make sure Jack came back, no matter what it took.

“My Toshiko!’ Jack called out.  “You got coordinates for me?”

From her desk Toshiko rattled off a series of numbers that Jack input into his strap teleport.  “Alright,” he said once he was done, “we _will_ be back.” As if stating it a second time would make the team believe him even more.

Hell, Clint believed it.  It was just if the team was still there when they got back.

He prided himself on being pragmatic, but even he didn’t want to make it back to the Hub and find everyone dead.  Intellectually he knew it was possible, but there was no way in hell he was going to actually consider it. 

A part of him wanted to tell Jack that the Daleks were on the way, but he couldn’t put the mission above the people – his _friends_ – in the Hub.  Ianto, in that silent movement, had not only trusted him with Jack, he’d trusted him to go through with finding the Doctor, no matter what.  The world was ending, and the last dragon in existence was putting his faith in a man whose favourite weapon was a stick with a bit of string attached. 

It was almost as overwhelming as the idea that someone as special as Phillip Coulson would love him. 

“We’ll be fine,” Ianto assured Jack, giving his mate a private smile.  The rest of the team was nodding in agreement.

Jack glanced around at each and every one of them.  “You’d better be,” he replied.  “Take care of them all, Ianto Jones.”

“You know I will.”  The dragon’s words held a power about them that Clint wanted to bask in.

Jack gave Ianto a nod.  Then he turned to Clint.  “Put your hand on the wrist strap,” he ordered.  “And don’t be surprised if you get sick at the end of the ride.”

_Wait…what?_

 


	18. Chapter 18

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_London_ **

****

Martha leaned back in her chair, rubbing her forehead as she put the phone down.

Seeing the Doctor had taken a load off of her shoulders.  The sharp corners of the Osterhagen Key gouged her in the hip from where she’d tucked it back into her pocket, and it felt like the entire world was weighing her down.

Now that the Doctor was on the case, she wouldn’t have to use it.  Although, even without Harriet Jones’ order she would never have fallen back on that particular option.  It didn’t matter that it had been a direct order from a superior; Martha had lived through the near-end of the world before, and she honestly didn’t think there would ever be a time when it was okay to blow up the entire planet.

The very idea of what UNIT had done…it was just one more reason why working for them made her vaguely uneasy.  On the whole, she did love her job – and the jealous jerks had finally quietened down and mostly left her alone – but there were some things UNIT did that Martha just didn’t agree with.  And, whoever had come up with the Osterhagen Protocol must have been one of the most cynical bastards on the entire planet.

Ianto had told her a few stories about Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart while they’d been walking the world, and Martha often found herself wishing that that grand old gentleman was still in charge. She was willing to bet something like this would never have been put in place under his watch, even as much as he enjoyed a good explosion.

What really bothered her though was the fact that Jack hadn’t known what the Osterhagen Key was.  Certainly, Martha knew that Torchwood and UNIT had an adversarial relationship at best, but she’d thought that UNIT had to at least keep Torchwood in the loop where things that affected the UK were concerned.  And yet, they hadn’t.  Jack had been clueless. 

Once this was over, she knew her friend would be confronting UNIT about the project.  Jack hated being kept in the dark about anything.  He was so going to blow his stack when he learned just what the Osterhagen Key was used for!

Martha felt a warm arm go around her shoulders, and she looked up at Tom, who was smiling down at her in that way that made her insides melt.  She really did love him.  More than she ever thought she’d love anyone.  When she thought back on that silly crush she’d had on the Doctor she wanted to cringe with it; her feelings for Tom were so much more than that. 

His dark eyes met hers, and in them was a certainty she didn’t feel.  “You’re going to go after the Doctor, aren’t you?”

Martha blinked.  She hadn’t expected that question.  “I hadn’t planned on it,” she answered honestly.  She really hadn’t.  She’d planned on leaving that up to Jack. 

Her fiancé huffed a gentle laugh.  “This whole thing isn’t over for you, not by a long chalk.”

“You think you know me,” she teased.

“I do,” he answered, his solemn voice a contrast to her light tone.  “You’re not one to leave this alone, Nightingale.  The question is: just what are you going to do next?”

Martha considered.  Tom was right.  It wasn’t in her nature to sit there, at her parents’ house, and let the world just die.  Her family was just out in the lounge, giving her the privacy she’d needed, even though she was aware that at least her Mum would have wanted to speak to Jack.  Martha hadn’t even told them that she was speaking to the Hub, and for that she felt just a tad bit guilty.  She’d be certain to tell her that everyone was alright.

She thought about going to find the Doctor as well, but decided that she didn’t want to.  Her time with him was past, and that had been amply proven during that mess with the Sontarans.  He had Donna now, and Martha no longer had a place on the TARDIS.

No, her place was with Tom, now.  And she’d be wherever Tom was for the rest of her life, she was sure.

But, back to her options.

Her fiancé was right; it wasn’t in her nature to sit back and let others handle things, especially where the end of the world was concerned.

After all, she was a charter member of the End of the World Club, and she’d come by that distinction honestly.

But she needed a plan…

It came to her far too easily.  She was ashamed she hadn’t thought of it sooner.

The Osterhagen Key.

She’d been around the Doctor enough to know that most of his plans were seat-of-the-pants and sheer bluffs on top of that.  Could she do it?  Could she use the Osterhagen Key in order to bluff the Daleks?

“You’ve come up with something.”

Tom was looking at her with a combination of pride and fondness.  Martha would never get used to seeing that expression.

“I just might have.”  She stood, taking his hands in hers.  “I need to go.”

“Yes, you do.”  He leaned forward and kissed her softly.  “And I bet it’s brilliant.”

Martha blushed at that.  “Well, I’m not sure about that…”

“Nope, I refuse to consider the woman I love is less that fantastic.”  His thumb was rubbing across the engagement ring on her finger, as he was wont to do, as if he couldn’t quite believe that she wanted to be his.   The night she’d asked him to marry her, Martha had thought he was going to faint, but after he’d gotten over the shock he hadn’t stopped smiling for days.  “I’ll keep my eye on the family, and on the sub-wave, and you go and be magnificent.”

Martha couldn’t even restrain herself from snogging him silly for that.  She really adored this man, and she could only hope that they’d have the kind of love that she always saw in Jack and Ianto.

Because that sort of love was truly eternal.

Martha didn’t want to leave, but she had to.  She had things to do, and no time to do them in.  She reluctantly pulled away from Tom, sighing, and then turned and gathered up the Indigo Device from where she’d looped it around the back of the chair.  She buckled the harness on, dreading what she was about to do but needing to do it.

“Wish me luck,” she requested softly, wondering when she’d see him again.  Because there was no way she wasn’t coming back.

Tom scoffed.  “You don’t need luck, since you’re awesome on your own.”

That set Martha to blushing once more.  He believed so much in her, and she really wondered what she’d done to deserve this man in her life. 

Taking a deep breath, Martha tried to imagine where she wanted to go.  She’d been to the facility once, but that should have been all it took if she was correct about the device.  After all, it had gotten her home when that was where she wanted to be.  She had to have faith that she’d be able to do what needed to be done. 

“I love you,” she blurted, just as she was tugging onto the twin handles of the Indigo device.

 

 


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any German translations in this came from Google, so who knows how accurate they are. The episode itself did not use subtitles so I had to turn to the internet to understand what was being said.

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_60 Miles outside of Nuremberg, Germany_ **

****

Travelling by the Indigo device wasn’t pleasant.

Martha ended up in a heap under dark trees, the chill of the air seeping into the jacket she was wearing.  She took a couple of breaths to steady herself before she climbed unsteadily to her feet, looking around in a hope to get her bearings.

In the distance, she could hear the Daleks, their strident voices yelling, “Exterminate!” in flawless German.

At least she’d ended up in the correct country.

Peering through the trees, she could just make out the forms of Daleks, hovering over the ground, and they were ordering anyone they could find to stop, once again in that weird, perfect German.  Martha knew a little of the language, and could tell they were gathering up anyone they could find, although for what purpose she didn’t know.

Creeping quietly through the woods, Martha headed in the opposite direction from the Daleks, hoping she was heading the right way, knowing that her destination had been within a forest outside of Nuremberg. 

There had been rumours about the castle UNIT had chosen as the German headquarters of The Osterhagen Project.  It had supposedly been built back in the 1300’s, and had been one of the many seats of power in the area during the Middle Ages.  Several of the troops stationed there had sworn it was haunted, and personally Martha didn’t really believe in ghosts, but she was aware enough of the universe to understand that there were so many things she didn’t understand that anything was possible.

It had been renovated by a Nazi bigwig during World War Two.  While it wasn’t specifically stated anywhere in any sort of records, the native folk claimed that it had once been home to the infamous Red Skull.  If Martha was honest, she really hadn’t done any real research into the place, content to have only visited it once when Colonel Mace had insisted she be read into the Osterhagen Project.  She remembered being horrified at the time she’d heard that particular story, even before the nature of the project had been explained to her. 

_Especially_ after the nature of the project had been explained to her.

Martha had tried to argue against it.  But Colonel Mace had simply stated that failsafes had to be in place just in case something like that Year ever happened again. 

She didn’t point out to him that they’d stopped the Master and that Year had never truly occurred, and that if they’d used something like the Osterhagen Project back then none of them would have been standing there discussing anything.

Whether it was just dumb luck or Martha had an excellent sense of direction and didn’t know it, she came out of the woods at the base of the enormous curtain wall of the castle.

The grey stone of the wall loomed over her.  Martha’s heart was pounding so hard she was certain that the Daleks would have been able to hear it.

But she wasn’t stopped as she circled the wall, looking for the way in.

An older, stout woman was waiting for her at the open gate.

She had steel-grey hair, and wore a heavy coat against the chill.  Her dress fell to the tops of her sturdy work boots, stained with travel.  She was shorter than Martha, but at the same time she had a presence about her that had Martha not underestimating her for one moment.

“Nobody is here!” the woman shouted in German.  “Whatever you want, go away!  Leave me in peace!” She sounded angry, her eyes narrowed and her gloved hands clenched into fists.

Martha hadn’t seen her when she was here last, but it was obvious this woman knew what the castle was there for.  She said, in her limited German, “My name is Martha Jones. I come from UNIT. Agent five six six seven one, from the Medical Department.”

Instead of making the woman more welcoming, she simply stared at Martha as if she was one of the Daleks terrorising the countryside.  “That accent…that is London, _ja_?”  she asked, this time in heavily accented English.  Then her gaze turned pensive.  “I went to London, a long time ago…”

Martha didn’t think the woman would ever go back again, but she didn’t say anything.  Instead, she asked, “I thought this place was supposed to be guarded?”  It was worrisome that only this German woman had greeted her, and none of the UNIT troops that were supposed to have been posted there.  For a second she thought maybe the Daleks had gotten to them, but if they had this place would have most likely have been wrecked and there would be bodies all over the place.

The woman shrugged.  She didn’t seem any less angry, but at least she was being civil at the moment.  “There were soldiers…mere boys.  I brought them food every day.  But when _der_ _Albtraum_ came from the sky, they went home.  To die.” 

_Der_ _Albtraum_.  The Nightmare.  That about summed up the Daleks.

“But _you_ came,” she mused, her sharp eyes piercing Martha like knives.

She refused to be intimidated.  Martha brushed past the woman, heading into the castle.  “I have work to do.”

The courtyard was silent, Martha’s footsteps echoing against the stone.  She strode directly to the large main doors, made of ancient wood bound in metal.  One of those doors was open just a crack, telling her that this woman – now identified as the caretaker – had come from inside to meet Martha, most likely to try and get her to leave.  However, Martha had the correct passcodes.  She belonged there.

She really didn’t blame any of the soldiers who’d left their posts, but at the same time abandoning this level of technology to the Daleks had been the wrong thing to do.  If they got a hold of this facility…it could have been catastrophic.  Martha had no idea what the Daleks wanted with the Earth and the other planets that were in orbit around each other, but she knew it was going to be very bad.

The interior of the castle was in darkness. Martha could just make out the shadows of furnishings in the gloom as she walked past, heading toward a decorative tapestry that was hung against one wall.  Pushing the tapestry aside revealed the scanner that had been built into the stone wall.

The woman had come in behind her.  “London,” her soft voice reached Martha as she input her codes into the panel, and then rested her hand against the scanner.  “In those days…to see it.  So much glamour.  I was so young…”

Martha ignored her the best she could, although the woman must have been lonely now that the soldiers had left.  There was a vague flicker under her palm as the scanner read her.

“I heard the soldiers talking many times.  They would speak to the Osterhagen Key…”

If the woman was trying to provoke a reaction, she was going to be disappointed.  Martha kept her hand against the scanner, waiting as well as she could; on the outside, her nerves would not have been visible.  Still, no one should have been discussing the project with an outsider, but as much as she wanted to report the men responsible it just wasn’t high on her list of her priorities.

“I think London must be changed, now, yes?” She sounded curious.  “But still, the glamour…”

The very audible click of a trigger being cocked was loud in the echoing silence.

Martha turned around.  The caretaker was now holding a gun.

She didn’t know what sort of gun it was, and a tiny voice in her head whispered to her that Patrick would have been able to tell her, if he’d been there. 

But he wasn’t.  He was in the Hub, still recovering from being shot by John Hart.

Martha would have given anything to have him standing next to her in that moment.

And yet, she wasn’t afraid of being shot.  If anything, she was far more terrified by what she was about to do that having a weapon held on her really wasn’t bothering her all that much. 

“You are not going down there,” the woman snarled.

“I have no choice,” Martha implored. 

She didn’t, not if she was going to put her plan into action.  She didn’t even know if the Daleks _could_ be bluffed, but she had to try.  She trusted the Doctor to do the best he could, but Martha just couldn’t stand by and not try _something_.

The woman’s hand was starting to shake.  “I know what it does,” she whispered, once again in German.  “ _Der_ _Albtraum_.  It is not them…it’s _you_.  I have to stop _you_.”

Martha hid the flinch at being called worse than the Daleks.  She could understand why this woman would think that, but she didn’t know what Martha truly wanted to do with the Osterhagen Key. 

She straightened, looking that poor woman in the eye, afraid that the gun might go off on its own the way she was trembling.  “Then do it.”

It was all about the bluff.  She wondered if she should have taken up Shreela at London UNIT on the invitation to join the weekly poker game.

It was actually a little scary that she was getting so good at lying.

Martha had no idea how long they stood there, but eventually the woman lowered the gun.  She let out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding.

Then she turned back to the security scanner, and triggered the lift door that had been hidden behind ancient stone. 

“Go to hell.”  The woman sounded completely and utterly broken, made worse by the words being spoken in German.

Martha looked at her.  “Yeah.  Probably.”

The lift door closed, blocking out the recriminations that were being aimed in her direction by a pair of pale, terrified eyes.

 


	20. Chapter 20

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_London_ **

****

Mickey Smith was pissed off.

Sure, he’d known that Rose had been really unhappy.  It had been obvious to anyone with eyes.  Hell, it had been obvious to anyone _without_ eyes.  She didn’t want to be there, on the alternate Earth, and she would have done anything to get back to the Doctor.

Mickey would have been jealous, if he hadn’t given up on all that bollocks years ago.

Really, he’d been far too busy to be envious of a Time Lord who wasn’t even in the picture anymore.  Saving the world had to take precedence over pining, and Mickey had really loved travelling, hunting down the Cybermen and making the world safe again, even if it wasn’t the Earth he’d been born on.  It had helped that he’d had another version of his Gran to look after as well, until she’d finally passed away, nice and peaceful, like he’d wished she’d done in his own universe.

He missed her.  Mickey might not have been her biological grandson, but neither of them had cared.  Rita-Ann Smith had been a fantastic woman, and Mickey had thoroughly loved her.  They’d taken care of each other, and he really missed her now that she was gone.

Of course, that was when he’d noticed just what Rose was up to.

He’d tried to warn Pete about indulging her.  That man had dumped a shit-load of money into the Dimension Cannon project, and what had that gained him?  Up until whatever the hell it was that was breaking the dimensional walls, Rose’s pet project hadn’t worked. 

And then she’d taken off the moment the bloody thing started functioning.

It had only been by chance that Mickey had even found out.  He’d been over for dinner at Pete and Jackie’s; he’d remained really close to Jackie, she’d long been the Mum he hadn’t known he’d wanted, and they’d only gotten closer after they’d been stranded in the alternate dimension.  He’d wondered why Rose wasn’t with them, and that was when Pete had made the offhand comment that there’d been something going on at the lab and that she’d gone to see what the problem was.

That had sent Mickey down to Torchwood, followed by Jackie who’d been more than just a little irritated that her own husband hadn’t told her that the Dimension Cannon had mysteriously started working.  Neither of them hadn’t wanted to think that Rose would have left without saying goodbye, but it turned out that she had.

Mickey had been really glad he’d kept the dimension jumpers they’d originally used to move between Earths.  Because he hadn’t been about to get help from those arseholes at the cannon lab.  Hell, Coulson had practically tossed him out, but then Mickey had to admit he might have deserved it, coming in like a bull in a china shop and demanding answers that he really didn’t have a right to, if he was being honest.

It had been Jones who’d explained about the dimension walls being destroyed, and how Rose had gone out to look for the Doctor, now that the cannon had started functioning.  At that point Jackie had got a major strop on, which was always a pleasure to see as long as it wasn’t aimed in his direction, and Jones would have folded like a wet paper bag if not for Coulson, who was perhaps the only person on the face of any planet who could withstand Jackie’s temper tantrums.  He’d gotten a slap for his trouble and Mickey had wanted to cheer, and yet had somehow refrained.

Then he’d gone and fetched two of the older model dimension jumpers and a couple of really big guns, because if there was one thing Mickey had learned during his Cyberman hunt was to always be prepared.

The dimension jumpers had proved to work just as well as the cannon had, only they really didn’t have any idea where Rose might have gone, only that it would have had to be London.  And Coulson wasn’t sharing that information, either.  How Rose had gained that sort of loyalty, Mickey didn’t know.

Which was why he and Jackie had materialised on a darkened street, with some weird planets in the sky that shouldn’t be there, facing a pair of Daleks who were about to blast a car that had been stopped in the middle of the road.

He’d taken out his frustrations on the Daleks by blowing them away…with Jackie’s help, of course.

The car door opened, and a woman got out, moving shakily after the close call.  Mickey couldn’t help the grin as he recognised her.

Sarah Jane Smith looked at him in pleased surprise.  “Mickey?” she exclaimed.

“Us Smiths have to stick together,” he said cheerfully, as if they’d meant to teleport in to her rescue when in fact it had been an enormous fluke.

She hugged him.  Mickey hugged her back.

He’d genuinely had liked the older woman the one time they’d met, over that Krillitane business.  That had been before the Cybermen and Canary Wharf and the alternate universe, and he was glad to know she was okay.  Hell, he was pretty much ecstatic that they’d managed to keep the Daleks from killing her.

He wasn’t so happy to see the Daleks, though.

Jackie moved around the car to them, her expression belligerent.  Mickey wanted to warn her off, that Sarah Jane was one of the good guys, but Hurricane Jackie was a force of nature.  “I’m Jackie Tyler, Rose’s Mum,” she practically growled.  “Do you know where the hell my daughter is?”

Sarah Jane’s eyebrows climbed up her forehead.  “Rose is here?”

It was pretty obvious she hadn’t seen Rose, so Mickey asked the next important question.  “What’s going on around here?”

Sarah Jane glanced at the burning Daleks, and then at her car.  Several pieces of debris had done a number on the bonnet.  She looked confused.  “You don’t know?”

Apparently, the Doctor hadn’t bothered to explain where they’d all been for the last several years, alternate Earth time.  “Haven’t been on this Earth in a while,” he told her. “We’ve been living in an alternate dimension and now we’ve been able to get back across.  Rose came to find the Doctor, and we’re trying to find her.”

That had her nodding. “I’m looking for the Doctor, too.  Let’s go while I fill you in.”

Together, the three of them headed out down the far too quiet street.  Sarah Jane explained about the Earth being moved, and the Daleks invading.  She told them that she had it on good authority that the Doctor had landed the TARDIS not far from where they were, and that she was going to find him. 

Mickey didn’t doubt that Rose would have found a way to locate the Doctor, too.  After all, that was what she’d been wanting to do ever since she’d been trapped on the other side of the dimensional barrier.  It had been a bit of a waste, in a way; Rose could have done anything she’d wanted to, and yet she’d chosen to pine after an alien that she wouldn’t have seen again if it hadn’t been for whatever the hell the Daleks had gotten up to.  Rose had even had a second chance with the man who could have been her father, and yet she’d not taken it, and had in fact convinced Pete into funding the entire Dimension Cannon project. 

A project that Rose had to have known wasn’t going to work in the first place.

The grating voices of the Daleks sounded from around the corner.  Sarah Jane took the lead, as if she was actually trusting Mickey and Jackie to have her back, which was a nice feeling.  Mickey hiked his gun up, the better to use it quickly, as the three of them crept to the corner.  Sarah Jane was peering around it, and Mickey joined her.

There, in an open stretch of road was the TARDIS.

The problem was, it was surrounded by four Daleks. 

“Transferring the TARDIS to the Crucible,” one of them said. 

The Crucible had to be the Dalek’s base, Mickey realised.  Sarah Jane had mentioned a space station, and he would have bet any amount of money that this was the Crucible. 

But if the Daleks had the TARDIS…then where was the Doctor?  And Rose?  Were they inside the machine, or out somewhere else?   Or had they already been exterminated?

A band of blue energy formed around the TARDIS.  The time machine shuddered, and then began to rise up into the air. They watched as it suddenly gained speed and lifted off out of the atmosphere, as if powered by some sort of rocket.

“Your dimension teleport things,” Sarah Jane hissed, “can we use them?  If they’ve got the TARDIS then I bet they have the Doctor, too.”

Mickey absently fingered the jumper in his pocket.  “No, it needs thirty minutes to recharge before it can be used again.”

Her face looked fierce in the scant light, and Mickey was reminded of one of the Resistance fighters he’d worked with over on the other Earth.  That woman had been killed during an attack on a Cyberman factory. 

He didn’t think that was a good thing.  Not when there were Daleks all over the place.

“Then put down your guns.”

What the hell?

“Excuse me?” Mickey blurted, caught flat-footed by the order. 

Sarah Jane straightened, raising her hands over her head and starting forward.  “If they see you with a gun, you’re dead,” she snapped over her shoulder. 

Then she stepped out from their cover, calling out, “Daleks, I surrender.”

“That woman is bloody mad,” he exclaimed.

“Maybe she is,” Jackie agreed, “but if the Daleks have the Doctor, then they have Rose as well.” She put her own gun down, and then followed Sarah Jane out to face the Daleks.

“All prisoners in the sector will be taken to the Crucible,” one of the Daleks said.  All four of them had weapons trained on the two women as they stepped closer.

Fuck.

Okay, this could work.  It was just that Mickey thought it was suicide to go anywhere without a gun.  Still, Sarah Jane had a point…if they saw that gun – and it was impossible to hide – then he’d be dead before he could even take a breath.

And so, Mickey did the only thing he could.

He pressed a kiss to the barrel of his gun – it had been a birthday gift from his friend, Jake – tucked it carefully under a parked car and out of sight, and then followed Jackie and Sarah Jane to surrender himself to the new Dalek Overlords.

He could only hope this would work out in the end.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm posting a second chapter today as well, because of Livejournal's posting limits

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_Cardiff_ **

****

Jack and Clint had only been gone a few seconds when the sounds of an explosion above their heads had the entire team ducking, and concrete dust falling down about their heads.  Ianto was glad that they’d moved Myfanwy, because that sort of thing would have freaked the pteranodon out badly, and the last thing they needed in the Hub was a terrified prehistoric creature.

Ianto spun on his heel, taking in his family.  “Alright, I want everyone down in the Archives,” he ordered.  “Toshiko, you can lock the doors behind you, and that should keep the Daleks from getting to you.  If it looks like they’re going to break through, you can take everyone out through the sewers.”

“And what about you?” Toshiko asked.  She looked tired, crumpled in her chair, one hand resting on her keyboard.  The circles under her eyes made them look darker than usual.  He hated putting the responsibility on her, knowing how she was being affected by the Earth, but with Owen and Patrick still technically off duty she was the logical choice to take charge of the rest of the team.

The dragon came out to play in the form of his eyes, changing into their normal, cat-slitted aspect, and he felt the evil grin spread across his lips.  “I’m going to stay here and see just what my flame can do against them.”

“Fuck that!” Owen exclaimed.  “They’ll cut you down!”  He looked furious, his hands on his hips even though his posture was slightly slumped, as if he was still favouring his injury.

Patrick didn’t say anything, although his expression told Ianto that he believed the dragon was being stupid.  He simply headed for the armoury, his very posture screaming irritation at the world. 

“Owen’s right,” Rhys said.  “We’re gonna fight them together.”  It looked as if Rhys the Rant was about to make an appearance, judging from the belligerent glint in his eyes.

“Exactly,” Deborah finished.  She was pale, but resolute.

Ianto was touched by his team wanting to stay, but he couldn’t allow it.  “I might have a small chance of stopping them.  But the rest of you…Jack took the only gun that might have worked, and the only other weapon that’s even vaguely powerful enough is the Dragon Killer but I’m pretty certain even that won’t cut through Dalek armour.”

“We have this,” Patrick said, reappearing from the armoury.

In his good hand was a duffle bag that didn’t look familiar to Ianto, but if he had to guess it held the American’s illicit explosives.  Ianto wondered just how he’d gotten that into the Hub without anyone noticing, but mentally praised him for his sneakiness.  He wasn’t about to do that out loud, however, since that defeated the purpose of the exercise of letting the team act in creative ways.

“If Rhys can help,” he went on, “I can get the entrance booby-trapped.”

Ianto considered that plan, and liked it.  “Then hurry.  I don’t think we have a lot of time.”

His better than human hearing could just make out the Daleks upstairs, alien voices speaking but he couldn’t make out what they were saying now that they weren’t shouting to exterminate anything.  He really didn’t want to see the bill for the wreck they were making of the Tourist Office.  It was bound to be catastrophic.  He dreaded Deborah’s reaction to it.

Rhys and Patrick headed for the cog door, which alarmed at their approach.  For perhaps the first time Ianto wished that thing was silent, because he was positive the invaders would be able to hear it and figure out how to come down into the Hub.  Still, Patrick had a point: some explosives in the short hallway beyond the door would give them time and hopefully take out the Daleks that were currently invading.  It would block that way out, but there were other ways of exiting if they needed to.

“Ianto,” Toshiko spoke up, “we can also activate the time bubble I created for the Hub.  It will keep anyone out…but it also means we’ll be stuck inside until things are done, one way or the other.”

The dragon chewed his lip thoughtfully.  “We’ll use that as a last resort,” he said.  “I don’t want to be cut off from the rest of the world unless absolutely necessary.”

His technician nodded, turning back to her computer.  The time bubble was a good defence, but for now they just couldn’t afford to lose contact with what was going on, especially if Jack needed them.  They needed to be available.

It only took a minute for Patrick to finish up what he was doing.  He and Rhys came back through the cog door, and Ianto ordered Toshiko to disable it once it had closed. “Put the Hub on partial lockdown,” he ordered.  That would also make it more difficult to get in if the explosives failed to do their job.

“You still planning on making a one-dragon last stand?” Owen asked.  Ianto could tell he was going for sarcasm but it didn’t work this time, and he just sounded worried.

“I still think the rest of you should take refuge in the Archives,” the dragon answered.  “But as you’re all too stubborn to actually follow my orders…”

He said that last part with fondness.  He should have guessed they’d want to stay.  They were his family, after all.  They would stand together, no matter what.

“We’ll follow orders when they make sense,” Rhys snorted, rolling his eyes. 

“Besides,” Deborah added, “we really wouldn’t be any safer going out through the sewers.  The Daleks are patrolling everywhere, and the moment we show our faces outside the sewers we’d be targets.”

She did have a valid point. 

There was a small sound outside the cog door, and then an almighty explosion that actually rocked the Hub.  Ianto wondered just what sort of bomb Patrick had been able to make in such a short amount of time that would have caused the damage that had been done, and despaired of having to bring in a repair crew and then having to Retcon them.

“That should stop them for now,” Patrick said, satisfied. 

“At least we have other ways of leaving if we have to,” the dragon sighed, acting put-upon.  In actuality, he was pleased that they seemed to have stopped the Daleks from entering the Hub through that route.

Still, if they decided that Torchwood was a big enough threat, they could just dig their way through.  It was a possibility, and Ianto needed them to be ready to defend themselves if that did happen.

He wondered just were Jack and Clint were.  Had they been able to find the Doctor?  Were they with the Time Lord now?  Or had the Daleks found them first?  Jack had his comm with him, but the dragon hadn’t wanted to risk that the signal might be intercepted.  Their communications systems were as secure as they could make it, but this was an advanced alien race.  They could very easily have some sort of technology that could tap into it and find out exactly what they were up to.   And Ianto doubted that Jack’s phone would have worked on the TARDIS.

He was desperately worried for them both, but especially for Jack.  After Ianto had fulfilled his Vow of Vengeance against the Master, the Doctor had been angry at the both of them: Ianto, because he’d done the actual deed; and Jack, because he was Ianto’s mate and what Ianto had done had been in Jack’s name.  Jack hadn’t even tried to stop it, either, instead backing the dragon’s actions.

Ianto mentally shook himself. They needed to get back into the game, and wool-gathering wasn’t going to achieve that.

“Rhys,” he said, “can we get CCTV running up on the Plass?  I want to see what we’re dealing with up there.”  He was a bit irritated that they hadn’t done that before, but then Ianto felt they could be cut a little slack for it, with so much going on. 

“You got it, boss,” the Welshman said.  He sat at his desk once more, getting to work, his usually jovial face set in stone as he pulled up the feeds.  Ianto didn’t ask him about the cameras in the Tourist Office, assuming that the Daleks had taken those out in the attack upon the building.

“Patrick,” the dragon turned to their weapons officer.  “I know you’re technically not on duty…”

“Give me a job, Boss Dragon, and I’ll do it.”  In fact, Patrick looked raring to go.  If it wasn’t for the sling that kept his left arm immobile, Ianto wouldn’t have guessed that he was most likely in pain. 

“I need to know if there’s anything in the armoury that might work against the Daleks.  I doubt there is but we need to make sure.  Also, if you could rig up a couple more bombs, I’d like to set traps on the invisible lift’s mechanism, the hidden entrance to the sewers, and the sea dock.  I don’t want to take any chances on the Daleks getting in those ways.”

“Sure can.”  The American headed toward the armoury, duffle bag in hand, and whistling what Ianto could have sworn was, _Whistle While You Work._

“Toshiko, set the sub-wave on stand-by.  I don’t want the Daleks knowing we’re still around, just in case they think we’ve blown ourselves up.  Not that I think they will, but if we run silent maybe we can fool them for a little while.”

“Already done,” she answered.  “I do think though we should risk calling the constabulary and checking in on Andy, and maybe he can tell us if Kathy is doing better.”  Toshiko looked very worried, and he couldn’t blame her.

He smiled softly at her, knowing that she’d need to know that her fiancée was still alright.  “Why don’t I do that, and you can get a little rest.”  She looked as if she wanted to argue, but he held up a hand to forestall her.  “We need you at your best, and I know damned well the Earth is affecting you.  If it’s bothering me, I can only guess what it’s doing to you.”

The dragon could sense just how off things were with the planet, so he knew it had to have been worse for the Friend of Earth.  And things were most likely going to get worse before they got better.

The Rift was also in an odd sort of disharmony.  Ianto knew that their end in Cardiff was fixed, that it couldn’t be moved, but how had it been affected by the planet’s being snatched out of its natural orbit? It felt stretched, in a way, and the dragon could guess it would be in an upheaval period once they got back to their proper place in the universe. 

He couldn’t even consider that they’d be trapped where they were. 

Ianto was aware that Jack was from the future, and he’d never once mentioned that the Earth wasn’t in its natural position.  That didn’t mean it couldn’t happen, and his mate either didn’t know or had forgotten.  The human mind wasn’t meant for immortality, and Jack could sometimes admit that there were things he simply couldn’t remember.  No, he knew his mate was just as much in the dark as anyone else was.

They had to trust that the Doctor could fix things, and that galled the dragon in ways he couldn’t even begin to describe.

 


	22. Chapter 22

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_Cardiff_ **

****

Toshiko’s shoulders slumped slightly.  “I _am_ tired,” she admitted.

“Then go and lay down on the sofa,” Ianto encouraged.  “I’ll wake you if anything happens.”

“You better.” She slowly rose to her feet, moving as if she’d somehow gained several decades in age.  “And let me know what Andy says about Kathy, yeah?”

“You know I will.”

Toshiko hadn’t even had a chance to lie down before Owen was there with a blanket and a pillow from the autopsy bay.  The medic carefully got her situated, and she smiled at him in gratitude. 

She was asleep quickly.

“I’ll keep an eye on her Dragon Boy,” Owen volunteered.  “But I also want to know if anything changes with you, too.  We can’t have you collapsing on us, because none of us want to run this place.”

Ianto rolled his eyes good-naturedly.  “Gods and goddesses forbid you should have to take up any sort of responsibility.”

“Damned right.  I’d just screw it up anyway.”

Even though Owen was teasing, Ianto was aware that he really did feel that way.  Owen was actually a very good field leader, and it didn’t matter how many times he or Jack said just that.  He simply didn’t have the same confidence he had in leadership that he had in his medical skills.

“I’m fine,” he assured their medic.  “I still feel a bit strange, but I’m dealing. I’ll definitely inform you if it begins to affect my job.”

“See that you do.”  Owen tucked himself into the end of the sofa, near Toshiko’s feet, and she unconsciously tucked her toes under his thigh.  Ianto couldn’t help but recall when Toshiko had had a crush on the doctor, but she’d managed to leave it behind and find a future with Kathy.  Really, they were so much better together than Toshiko and Owen would have been, and besides Owen had found someone else in Diane Holmes. 

Personally, Ianto couldn’t wait until Diane joined them in Cardiff. She was going to fit in with the team really well.

“Deborah,” he said to their PA, “keep on the police bands.  Trapped in the Hub like this, we need to know what’s going on up top.”

The young woman nodded.  “It’s gotten really quiet,” she reported.  “There were some reports of vandalism, but once the Daleks showed up that stopped.”

“I’m going to call Andy, and get the inside scoop on the constabulary,” he said, taking out his phone as he did so.  He really hoped everything was alright at Cardiff CID, and that the Daleks hadn’t taken their homicidal tendencies out on the coppers.  Things had been bad enough since Gray had set the Weevils on them; they, like the city, really hadn’t had a chance to recover yet.

 _“Are you lot okay?”_ Andy demanded upon answering the line.

“We’re fine for now,” the dragon answered.  “But we have Daleks on our doorstep and I’m not sure how long we’re going to be able to keep them out. What’s going on there?” 

Andy used some very colourful language at that news.  _“We’ve hunkered down here, and so far the bastards are leaving us alone, but there’s no telling how long that’s going to last if they think we’re some sort of threat.  There’ve been a couple of casualties, coppers that were out in the field when the Daleks landed, but thank fuck for your warning because it could have been so much worse.”_

“Keep your heads down until this is all done,” Ianto replied.  “Hopefully that’ll be soon.”

 _“You think this is going to be ending in a good way?”_ Andy didn’t sound convinced, but then Ianto really couldn’t blame him.  Circumstances were dire, there was no denying that.

“We’re working on it.”  He didn’t want to explain over the phone; there was no telling if the Daleks could tap into the mobile network. 

_“Well, hurry up, because this is getting out of hand.”_

Ianto couldn’t disagree.

“Is Kathy any better?” he asked instead.

_“She’s up and about, but it’s like dealing with a bear with a hangover.  I know she was gonna call about Toshiko as soon as she got things settled here, but she’s been worried…and if you tell her I admitted that to you, I’ll make sure the very next ticket Himself gets makes it to traffic court.”_

Ianto couldn’t help but chuckle at that.  “Not a word, Detective Sergeant.”

_“Good. Let me get the DCI on the phone and you can talk to her directly.”_

There was a pause, during which Ianto checked on his own people.  They were all being very careful not to look as if they were eavesdropping on his conversation; well, except for Patrick, who was still in the armoury. 

The dragon stepped up behind Rhys, who’d managed to get the CCTV on the Plass up and running.  In the grainy footage, he could see five Daleks up there, parked in a semi-circle as if they were consulting on what to do next.  It was too bad those cameras didn’t have sound, because Ianto would have loved to hear what they were planning.

He played with the idea of getting up on the invisible lift and listening in, but there was no guarantee that the Daleks would have been affected by the perception filter.  He just didn’t want to take the risk that he would be seen, since no matter his bravado at facing the Daleks as they penetrated the Hub he really didn’t want to face the Dalek guns.  The dragon had no real way of knowing that they’d actually kill him.

 _“Jones,”_ Kathy’s exhausted-sounding voice came over the line, _“please tell me that Tosh is alright.”_

“She is,” he assured his friend.  “She’s sleeping right now.  It’s really done a number on her, though.”

The sigh of relief was loud and heartfelt.  _“Have you heard from anyone else?”_

“Not lately,” the dragon answered, feeling guilty about it.  “But Alice is being looked after at her job, and Johnny has things well in hand at Ddraig Llyn.  Things have just been crazy around here, and I haven’t had time to check on them again.”

 _“Let me do that,”_ Kathy offered.  _“You lot save the world and we’ll be even.”_

It was Ianto’s turn to be relieved.  “I told Andy we’re working on it.  Hopefully things will be back to normal soon.”  He wanted so much to confide in her, but he just couldn’t take the chance that the Daleks would find out somehow. 

_“Well, as normal as things usually are around here.”_

The dragon snorted.  She wasn’t wrong about that.  “Keep safe, alright?  I really want to give Toshiko away at your wedding.”

 _“You all be careful out there.  That includes Harkness.  Don’t let him do anything idiotic.”_ That was quite possibly the closest that Kathy Swanson would ever get to admitting that she cared about Jack as well.

“We will be.”

 _“Tell Tosh I love her?”_ she pleaded.

“I can wake her and let you speak to her.”

_“No, let her sleep.  And you take care as well.  I know you’re more affected than what you’re admitting.”_

“I will.  I promise.”

_“And your promises are better than anyone else’s.  Now, I need to get back to work.  Maybe I won’t take my bad mood out on the coppers under my command now.”_

It was said teasingly, but Ianto knew just how worried and afraid Kathy had been.  “Please do, they’re all good people.”

_“Get back to work, Jones.  We’re all relying on Torchwood to put this right.”_

There were times when he wasn’t so sure that they deserved the faith that people put in them, especially now when they were sitting on their arses, waiting for Jack and the Doctor to pull a rabbit out of their hats. 

He hung up, shoulders slumping.  Ianto was tired, and it had only been a couple of hours since the Daleks had stolen the Earth.  There was no telling how long this was going to go on.

“Is Kathy and Andy okay?”

The dragon turned, nodding at Deborah’s question.  “Both of them are.  Although, I’m thinking you’re asking more about Andy than Kathy.”

The young woman blushed slightly.  “I don’t know what you mean.”

“I’m sure you don’t.”

“Boss,” Patrick butted in, “I got a few surprises made up for you.”  He had three small boxes cradled in his good arm, each with wires and attached to a lump of something that was most likely C-4.  Ianto reached out and took one of the explosive devices from him.  “We just need to get them set up where you want them.”

“Take Rhys with you and get one down to the sewer entrance and the dock,” he ordered, “and I’ll make sure this one is attached to the lift mechanism.  Show me how to handle it.”

As Patrick pointed out the bomb’s workings, Ianto sent a small prayer to the Great Dragons, knowing that they really couldn’t hear him at that moment but needing that little bit of comfort that they were really going to succeed.

 


	23. Chapter 23

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_The TARDIS_ **

****

Jack held both Rose and the Doctor’s current companion back as the Time Lord began the regeneration.

He held out a small hope that the next version of the Doctor would perhaps let go the events on the _Valiant,_ that they would at least be able to move on from it.  But he wasn’t counting on it.

The immortal missed his Doctor, the one who’d accepted an unrepentant conman onto the TARDIS at Rose’s urging and had changed him into a much better man.  Although it had been that Doctor to have ultimately abandoned him on the Gamestation, they’d been friends, and Jack had been half in love with him, willing to give his life for that version of the Time Lord. 

This version…this was the one who’d called him wrong, even though it hadn’t been his fault that he’d been made immortal.  That had been down to the woman in his arms, someone he’d also loved more than he should, and he couldn’t blame her for it.  What Rose had done had been out of her love for him, and it had led him to his mate.  Jack had, for a long time, despaired of his life until he’d met Ianto, and while he’d screwed things up so badly between them they’d eventually moved past it all and now they’d be together for eternity.

Golden light coruscated about the Doctor, obscuring his face as he was flung his arms outward with the force of the power flooding him.  Jack blinked against the glare, his grasp on both women tightening as he felt Rose flinching from what was happening.

Rose was another matter Jack wanted to talk about, but it could wait. 

Suddenly though, the Doctor was moving against the tide of his regeneration.  His arms came down and he bent forward, and the energy that had been pulsing through him was directed toward something else, something that had been tucked into a small corner underneath the console.

Jack couldn’t make out what it was, it was obscured within the gold energy that engulfed it.  He flinched back, taking Rose and Donna with him.  He moved slightly, just enough to put himself between them and the stream, needing to protect them from whatever was going on.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Clint.  The SHIELD archer was standing guard by the doors, his bow out with an arrow on the string, ready for action.  His sharp eyes were watching everything that was going on, and Jack felt bad that he couldn’t take the time to explain.  He knew how much he hated working in the dark, and not being able to clue Clint in on what was happening made him feel as if he was failing the man.  While Clint might not officially work for Torchwood, he was still looking after Jack, and the immortal needed to make certain he was doing what he needed to do to make certain they got through this.

The light faded out and the Doctor stumbled backward.

He looked exactly the same.

Jack was disappointed…not that he was about to admit that.

“Well,” the Time Lord said, straightening his tie, “now, where were we?”

“What the hell was that?” Jack demanded.  That wasn’t anything like any sort of regeneration that he’d read about. 

The Doctor didn’t answer right away.  Instead, he knelt on the TARDIS grating, his nose right up against the glass of what was a clear container, in which a hand was floating.  Glowing energy flowed around the hand, until the Doctor gently blew on it, and the glow dissipated. 

Jack recognised it.

It was the Doctor’s hand.

The last time Jack had seen it had been on the _Valiant,_ back during that Year.  The Master had gotten it from the Doctor; Jack had used it as a detector, in order to know when the Time Lord came back into the area.  He himself had gotten it from Torchwood One, after it had fallen to the Daleks and Cybermen.  He’d had Suzie look for it particularly, since Yvonne Hartman had bragged to all sundry about finding it after the incident with the Sycorax.  Apparently, the Doctor had lost it in a fight with the Sycorax leader, and had grown a new one.  Jack still wasn’t sure how that had happened.

The Master had been able to use it to tap into the Doctor’s biodata, and it had allowed him to age the Doctor by centuries while keeping him from regenerating.  Jack still remembered the Doctor, reduced to a dwarfish caricature in a gilded cage.

He couldn’t blame the Doctor at all for confiscating it.  Jack was just surprised he hadn’t destroyed it yet.

“Quiet, you,” the Doctor crooned to the hand.  He stood up, looking smug, jamming his hands into his pockets. 

“How?” Rose asked, her voice tinged with hope.

“You see,” he began, and of course he was going to answer Rose and not Jack, “I used the regeneration energy to heal myself.  As soon as that was done, I didn’t need to change.  I didn’t want to.  After all, why would I?  Look at me!” He threw his hands out to his sides, a huge grin on his face.  Then he went back into lecture mode.  “So, to stop the energy from going all the way, I siphoned it off into a handy bio-matching receptacle.  Namely, my hand.”  He gestured toward the jar.  “That’s my hand, there.  My handy spare hand.”  He wriggled his fingers.  “You remember?  Christmas Day?  The Sycorax? Lost my hand in a sword fight?  That’s my hand.”

“That’s kinda gross,” Clint commented flippantly, “keeping your cut-off hand around like that.”

Clint might have had a valid point.

The Doctor completely ignored him, his eyes instead on Rose.  Jack couldn’t see the expression on her face from where he was standing, but he could guess it was a mixture of love and hope.

“And you’re still…you?” she asked softly, uncertainly, as she took a step forward.

The Doctor’s own face had melted into a fond expression, and it made Jack’s heart ache a little to see it.  Even back during the regeneration that Jack had cared for, there had been the beginnings of that affection between the Time Lord and Rose, but it must have really blossomed once the Ninth had become the Tenth judging from the cow eyes that he was giving her.

Jack wanted to be jealous.  It just wasn’t in him to be like that, especially now that he had a mate of his own and after the falling out he and the Doctor had had.

“I’m still me,” he said, smiling sweetly.

Before Jack could even register it, Rose had practically jumped into the Doctor’s arms.  He was hugging her fiercely, and the immortal could swear that there were tears in his ancient eyes. 

Jack suddenly wanted nothing more than to be back in the Hub, with his mate. 

Then he felt eyes on him, and there was Donna Noble.  The redhead was staring at him, her arms crossed, looking at him as if she was trying to figure him out.  “And you and your bow-carrying friend are?” she challenged.

“Captain Jack Harkness,” he said, wanting to be polite.  Donna hadn’t done anything to him, so there was no need to be rude.  “And this is my associate, Clint Barton.”

Clint gave her an off-hand salute from his position at the TARDIS doors. 

“And you know the Doctor how?”

“I don’t know him,” Clint piped up.  “I’m just here to watch his back,” he jerked a thumb toward Jack, “because his boyfriend can’t be.”

Donna sighed.  “Why are all the cute ones taken?”

Normally, Jack would have preened at that remark, but he just wasn’t feeling it today.  “I know the Doctor because I used to travel with him,” he answered her. 

Rose looked as if she wanted to say something, but the Time Lord interrupted.

“That was a long time ago.”

Jack frowned at the Doctor’s tone.  “You’ve been busy, I take it?” he growled, throwing back to the Doctor the words he’d used with Jack when they’d met again after that wild trip to the far future.

The Doctor stood there, his arm around Rose, glaring at Jack as if he was the last person he wanted to see.  Which was most likely correct.

Rose was glancing between them, her brows drawn in puzzlement.  Of course…she had no idea what had gone on between them.  All she would remember was how they parted, and that she’d used the Vortex to bring him back.

Did she even know about his immortality? 

Most likely not, and he wasn’t about to tell her.

Jack loved Rose.  He’d been devastated when he’d thought she’d been killed at Canary Wharf, and had blamed Torchwood One for a long time for that.  After that, he’d held One responsible for what they’d done to the dragon who’d called herself Lisa, and for breaking his mate’s heart. 

But she’d just been trapped in another dimension, and not dead.  Now, she was back, she was with the Doctor, and he didn’t want to ruin that for her.

“I take it the pair of you don’t like each other very much then,” Donna piped up, managing to hit the nail on the head with one sentence.

“What?” Rose was stunned. “How did that happen?  And how did you even get here, Jack?”

“It’s not important,” Jack growled.  “Right now we have to deal with the Daleks and what they have planned.” He didn’t want to get into his and the Doctor’s issues; there were more important things going on that raking up the bad times, and Jack needed them focussed on that instead of anything else.   He was willing to put it all aside in order to save the planet.

The Doctor opened his mouth to speak, but the TARDIS went dark.

Gone were all the little noises that the time ship would make constantly.  Also gone was the familiar light mental touch that Jack had always felt when he was inside, that quiet intelligence that had been so very sorry for having in involve him in that disastrous trip into the far future.  He’d long forgiven her for it, and she knew that, and having the TARDIS so very silent was so very wrong.

The Doctor released his grasp on Rose, darting around the console, trying to get the power back on.  “They’ve got us!” he exclaimed.  “It’s some sort of chronon loop – “

Jack froze.  He knew immediately what that meant.  There would be no way to escape wherever the Daleks were taking them.  They were trapped.

The TARDIS lurched, and if it hadn’t been for the coral-like struts that surrounded the console room Jack would have been tossed to the floor.

As it was, Clint did go flying, bow thrown in one direction and the arrow that he’d been holding nocked to the string in another.  Rose was slammed into the console, and Donna into the far wall.  The Doctor somehow managed to hold onto the console as the TARDIS rocked and shuddered.

The Daleks must have been transferring them to their space station.

Jack wrapped his arms around the strut, trying to set his feet to keep from being pitched onto the floor.  Clint managed to grab one of the rails, holding himself in place. The Doctor had grasped Rose to him, and that left Donna, who wedged herself into a corner, crying out as she started to skid across the tilting deck.

The shaking seemed to go on forever.  Jack’s arms were getting tired, but he didn’t dare let go.  The last thing he wanted was to go head first into the console and risk getting himself hurt or worse, killed.  If he died then he might be out of the action, and the last thing he wanted to do was to not be able to protect those in the TARDIS.

And yes, that also included the Doctor.

No matter how the Time Lord felt about him, Jack still believed he owed him a debt.  He would repay that debt today, by taking care of those in his charge, and make certain the Earth got back to where it belonged.

After that, then he wouldn’t have minded never seeing the Doctor again.


	24. Chapter 24

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_The TARDIS_ **

****

Eventually the shuddering ceased.  Jack let go of his strut reluctantly, not trusting that it would start up again.  He made his way toward the console, helping Donna up along the way.  She gave him a grateful smile as they joined the others, Clint having retrieved his bow, the weapon looped about the quiver on his back.

“Where are they taking us?” Rose demanded. She rubbed her shoulder absently.

“The Daleks have a space station at the centre of the planets,” Jack explained.  “I can guess that’s where we’re going.”

“And how did you get here, Rose?” the Doctor asked.  “The walls between the dimensions were sealed for a reason.”

She settled against the console comfortably.  “Well,” she explained, “we’ve been working on this Dimension Cannon.  And it didn’t work, no matter what we tried.  But then it just…turned on.”

“Why would you be building something like that?” Jack asked, even though he could guess the answer.

Rose turned shy.  She ducked her head, but she looked up at the Doctor through her eyelashes.  “So I could come back.”

The smile the Doctor gave her was incandescent. 

A very tiny part of Jack wished that he’d look at him like that, which would never happen now, not with everything between them.

“But when it started working,” she went on, “we noticed that the very dimensional walls were collapsing, not just here but in all dimensions.  Even the Void was dead.  I wondered if it was linked to the stars going out.”

That didn’t sound ominous at all.

“We know that time is faster in that other dimension, so we figured whatever it was, it hadn’t happened here yet.  And I knew I’d need to find you, Doctor, to work things out.”  She shrugged.  “Of course I didn’t count on appearing in the middle of an invasion.”

“What do you mean,” Clint asked, “about the stars going out?”

“Every night, more and more stars were vanishing, and no one could work it out.  It just made sense that it had something to do with the dimensions crashing.”

Jack nodded.  She was right, it did make sense.  Something was destroying the universe, and he was positive it had to do with whatever the Daleks wanted these twenty-seven planets for.

He could tell the Doctor was thinking the same thing. 

“There’s something else.”  Rose looked nervous, and Jack reached out and touched her elbow, wanting to ground her.  They needed all the information they could get if they were going to stop whatever the Daleks had up their shells.  She flashed him a quick, grateful grin – which the Doctor didn’t seem to appreciate – and then went on.  “The Dimension Cannon zeroed in on two people in this dimension that were important to what was going on.  We’re still not sure how it was doing it, but it was.”

“Who are these people then?” the Doctor asked.

Rose took a deep breath.  “It’s Donna Noble and Clint Barton.”

Clint frowned.  Jack could see him trying to shuffle that into the mental picture he had of events, and not coming up with a damned thing.

“But why me?” Donna exclaimed.  “I’m just a temp from Chiswick.  I’m not important at all.”

“I feel the same way,” the archer replied.  “I’m only around because I volunteered to cover while Jack’s team is down two people.  Hell, like I said, I tagged along with Jack because he needed someone to watch his back and Ianto couldn’t do it.”

“I don’t know why,” Rose said, “only that you’re needed here.”  Then she smirked.  “Ianto?  Is that the boyfriend then, Jack?”

Ianto was so much more than that, but he did appreciate Clint not using the term ‘mate’, since it would most likely fuel the fire of Rose’s curiosity even more than thinking Ianto was simply a boyfriend.

Before he could answer, the Doctor butted in. “So, whatever’s going to happen, Donna is smack dab in the middle of it?”

Jack didn’t like the way he snubbed Clint, but the SHIELD agent simply shrugged, as if it wasn’t a big deal.  And maybe it wasn’t, at least to his friend.  Clint knew his worth, to both SHIELD and to Torchwood.  He didn’t need to have his ego boosted.

Rose frowned at the Doctor’s interruption.  Jack could tell she was puzzled, not only by their coldness toward each other, but Jack’s very presence there on Earth, at this time.  He wondered just what the Doctor had told her when she’d enquired where Jack was, because it was obvious Rose hadn’t expected him to show up, just from her question earlier about how he’d come to Earth. 

He was saved from any sort of explanation by a chime coming from the console.  Blessing the interruption, Jack watched as the Doctor darted around the controls, wondering where the power had come from to even make that sound, let alone give any sort of information.

“We’re coming up on the space station,” the Time Lord reported.  “Hold onto something, we might have a bumpy landing.”

Jack clutched at the console, bracing for impact.  The others did the same, and Clint shot him a look that had Jack wondering if the SHIELD agent wasn’t some sort of mind reader, since it was full of sympathy.  Maybe he’d realised this situation was far more fraught than he’d thought.

Jack was wishing he’d stayed in the Hub with Ianto.

Yet he couldn’t.  It didn’t matter that he and the Doctor didn’t get along anymore, although it made Jack sad to know that so many years and disagreements had come between them.  They’d been friends once, but that was now in the past.  A part of Jack realised that, even though their relationship was so strained that he’d always come to help, whenever the Doctor needed him. 

The thing was, Ianto understood that; had perhaps known that even before Jack had.  But then the dragon did know Jack sometimes better than Jack did himself.

There was a crash, and the TARDIS slammed into something.  Jack almost lost his grip on the console, but managed to hold on as the time machine came to an abrupt halt. 

They’d landed.

Jack barely had time to straighten his coat before the strident voice of a Dalek was heard through the TARDIS doors.

“Doctor!  You will step out of the TARDIS or die.”

The Doctor took a deep breath.  “We might as well do as it says, or else it will just come in and get us.”

“You once told me nothing could get through those doors!” Rose exclaimed, alarmed.

“But you have extrapolator shielding!” Jack added.  He knew for a fact that nothing could get through the TARDIS’s shields; he’d been the one to install the extrapolator, after that mess with Margaret Blaine.

But then, even as he was thinking that, he realised that the TARDIS was without power.  The shields would have gone down.

He checked his wrist strap, thinking they could escape using that.  However, it was as dead as they would be as soon as they stepped foot outside those doors.

“The last time we fought the Daleks,” the Doctor said intensely, “they were scavengers and hybrids and mad.  But this is a fully-fledged Dalek Empire, at the height of its power.  Experts would have been finding TARDISes all the time.  With those, they figure them out.  That wooden door,” he hooked his thumb toward the TARDIS entrance, “is just wood.”

“What about this Dimension Cannon thing?” Jack asked Rose.  “Can it lock onto us?”

Rose dug around in her jacket pocket, pulling out what resembled a mobile phone.  She flicked it open…and then sighed and snapped it closed, tucking it away.  “I have to be able to contact project control, but whatever the Daleks used to cut the TARDIS’s power must have affected my phone.”

“Yeah,” Jack said, “it’s done that to my wrist strap as well.”  He really should have guessed that it would have been a one-way trip, really; him getting it working this once has been more of a fluke, after it had burnt out when they’d transported the space whale from the warehouse it had been imprisoned in to the dock under the Hub.

“Surrender Doctor!” the Dalek outside the TARDIS shouted once more. 

“Okay,” the Time Lord said, straightening his shoulders.  “All together, shall we?”

“Do the Daleks have any way of knowing how many of us are in here?” Clint asked.  “We could leave someone behind, have them sneak out and explore after the Daleks have the others?”

Jack liked that plan, and was about to say so, when the Doctor shook his head emphatically.  “The Daleks will most likely send a patrol in here after we’re in custody.  Besides, I’m not leaving anyone behind in here.”

Clint frowned, and Jack could see he was considering the Doctor’s words.  He could also tell that the archer wasn’t sure he believed what he’d just been told, or if it was just a case of the Doctor not wanting _Torchwood_ staying inside alone.

Personally, Jack figured it was the latter.

“Oh, and you’d best leave your weapons behind,” the Doctor also said.  “The moment the Daleks see those they’ll most likely exterminate you.”

Jack glanced over at where he’d dropped his big gun when they’d carried the Doctor into the TARDIS; it was sitting beside the one Rose had brought with her.  The Doctor had a point, but at the same time he was going to keep his Webley on him, and just make certain his coat was closed.  The Daleks might disregard it as not being effective against them.

The same went for Clint’s bow.  The only reasons it had worked against the Dalek in the street was because he’d outfitted several of his arrows with the explosives that Patrick had managed to smuggle into the Hub and the archer’s phenomenal aim.  Otherwise it would have been useless.

“Blimey,” the Doctor sighed.  “Let’s go and get this over with, shall we?”

With that, he spun on his heel and walked toward the door.  Rose glanced at Jack, and then followed.  Jack met Clint’s gaze, and he would practically read the archer wanting to deny the Doctor’s edict that they all leave the suspect safety of the TARDIS.  Jack didn’t blame him, but he gave a faint nod and Clint returned it, pulling first his bow away from his quiver, then the quiver over his shoulder, and he carefully set them down near the gun Jack had abandoned.  He didn’t look happy about it.

Jack wasn’t, either.

The problem was, that despite everything Jack did trust the Doctor.  He’d saved the planet so many times that the immortal had faith that he’d be able to do so again.  It was the reason he’d gone off from the Hub to find the Time Lord; to help him with whatever plan that he would pull out of the hat.

Taking a deep breath, Jack left the relative safety of the TARDIS and stepped out into the Dalek’s space station.

The space beyond the TARDIS doors was enormous.  Jack looked around, stunned by the sheer number of Daleks he could see.  The Doctor had been correct: this was a Dalek Empire, one that could very well take over the universe if it wanted to.

He could remember when the former Doctor – the one he’d known – had been blindsided by the mad Dalek Emperor and the force that it had commanded.  He’d been so certain that he’d gotten rid of every last one of them when he’d destroyed Gallifrey during the Time War, that it had taken him several minutes to regroup before he could even begin to deal with the situation.

Now, it was different. 

Now, the Doctor confronted the Daleks that were waiting for them.  There were millions, some on the floor of the ship they were in; others hovering in the air, all of them chanting in unison, a terrible, grating sound that had Jack shivering as he stood there.

_“Daleks reign supreme!  Daleks reign supreme!”_

In that single moment, Jack doubted they’d be able to do much of anything to stop whatever it was the Daleks were going to do.  There were just too many of them, and unless there was a stroke of pure luck there were trapped.  He mentally said goodbye to Ianto, who’d only been his true mate for such a short time.

And then, the unmistakable sound of the TARDIS door slamming shut had Jack spinning around so fast he was almost dizzy.

The TARDIS was closed.

With Donna and Clint still inside.

 


	25. Chapter 25

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_The Dalek Crucible_ **

****

Rose didn’t know what was going on between the Doctor and Jack, but she didn’t like it.

The antagonism was almost strong enough to cut with a knife.  The Doctor seemed disapproving, almost disappointed; and Jack was hurt, and that made him angry.  Something had to have occurred to put that sort of strain on the pair of them, and she didn’t think she was going to find out what it was easily. 

The Doctor had changed the subject the one time Rose had asked about how Jack had come to this time, and to this Earth.  There was a story about it, and she would have given anything to be able to corner one of them about it, but there simply wasn’t any time to do just that.

She had the distinct impression that she wouldn’t like it, but didn’t know why.

Still, she’d have time to discover the truth once the Daleks had been taken care of.  Rose had faith that the Doctor would be able to send the Daleks packing, and to make sure the Earth got back to where it belonged. 

And then she would go travelling with him once more.

She was looking forward to that.

But until that happened, Rose was going to do whatever the Doctor needed her to, and if that meant dropping the subject of the animosity between the Doctor and Jack, then she would. 

For now.

But she was going to get some answers.  And she was going to correct whatever had gone wrong between the man she loved and the man who was like a brother to her.  They shouldn’t be like this with each other.

The Dalek space station was impressive, and the sheer number of Daleks was frightening.  A part of her wished she still access to the Vortex, to be the Bad Wolf once again, and to destroy this empire just as she had the last one.  If she could take away this responsibility from the Doctor, she would.

However, in this time and place she was just an ordinary woman, one who’d seen too much and who had wanted more than anything to be with the man she was meant to spend the rest of her life with.  To stand at his side while he sent these Daleks packing. 

That was what the Doctor did. 

The Dalek that met them outside the TARDIS was larger than the others.  Its body was of red metal, with gold spheres along the bottom of its frame and with heavy-duty matching struts along the upper shell.  There was something even more intimidating about it than the usual Dalek, and it struck Rose that this one was in charge. 

“Behold, Doctor!’ the red Dalek declared, and if a Dalek could sound smug this one certainly did.  “Behold the glory of the Dalek race!”

The Doctor stepped forward, putting himself between the Dalek and Rose.  She wanted to roll her eyes at him, but that the same time she was grateful that he was willing to protect her in this small way.  Jack was standing at the Doctor’s shoulder, his body far too still under the long RAF greatcoat he wore.  Rose remembered that coat, or one like it: Jack had had one during the Blitz, when he’d come barrelling into their lives and had made himself at home in the TARDIS.  Rose hadn’t seen it after that, Jack having adopted a more up-to-date wardrobe, but at some point he’d gone back to it, and it suited him.

She had so many questions for her old friend, but she put them out of her mind in order to pay attention to what was going on around them.

There was a noise behind them, one that Rose quickly identified as the TARDIS door slamming shut.

All three of them spun toward the time machine.  It sat there, looking quite innocent.

But Donna and Clint weren’t with them.

They had to have still been inside.

“Come out, you two,” the Doctor called.  “It’s no safer in there than it is out there.”

Instead of them following the Doctor’s instructions, a pounding noise came from within the TARDIS.

“Let us out!” came the muffled voice of Donna Noble.  “Doctor, what have you done?”

The Doctor took a step back toward the TARDIS.  “I haven’t done anything!” He sounded confused as he tried the door.

It would not open.

The sound of cursing floated from inside the TARDIS as the door shivered like someone had attempted to break it down.  Rose just knew that was Clint Barton, trying to get them out.

Rose couldn’t help but think that this was it.  That this was what the Dimension Cannon had been pointing toward, as it couldn’t have been coincidence that the two people it had shown as being important were the ones now trapped within the TARDIS.

It was almost like a sense of déjà vu, realising that she was witnessing something that shouldn’t be happening, and yet it was doing just that. 

There was more banging on the door.  “Let us out!” Donna shouted again. 

The Doctor rattled the door handle once more, then turned and glared at the red Dalek.  “Stop it!’ he demanded.  “Open the door and let them out!”

Rose didn’t know why the Doctor thought this was the Dalek’s doing.  She was very much aware that the TARDIS had a mind of her own, and there were times when she did things that no one could understand.  Rose had often felt that alien intelligence brush against her mind when she’d travelled within her.  If the TARDIS wanted Donna and Clint to stay inside, then that was going to happen and only battering in that old wooden door would get them out.

“This is Time Lord treachery,” the red Dalek accused.

The Doctor looked as if the creature had just slapped him.  “Me?  The door just closed on its own!”

Jack had his hand on the wood, and there was a faraway look in his brilliant blue yes.  Rose just knew the TARDIS was telling him something. 

He sighed, then lowered his hand from the rough exterior of the time machine.  Jack stepped away to glare once more at the red Dalek, as if he could destroy it with his brain.

Rose had to wonder why the TARDIS was talking to him in whatever way she had, and not the Doctor.

“Nevertheless,” the Dalek intoned, “the TARDIS is a weapon and it will be destroyed.”

With that proclamation, the section of flooring the TARDIS had been parked on opened, and the time machine slid into the hole, disappearing from sight.

 

 


	26. Chapter 26

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_The Dalek Crucible_ **

****

Rose’s heart rose into her throat as the TARDIS vanished.  What had the Daleks done?  And what was going to happen to Donna and Clint?

The Doctor had whirled back toward the red Dalek, horror on his face.  “What have you done?  Bring her back!”  His body was quivering in rage, and it was all Rose could do not to back away.  She’d rarely seen the Doctor this angry, and it was truly frightening.

But the Dalek would not be persuaded. 

“The Crucible has a heart of Zed-Neutrino energy,” it said, almost gleeful.  “The TARDIS will be deposited into the core.”

“But you can’t!”  The Doctor took several steps toward the Dalek, ignoring the guns all aiming in his direction.  “You’ve taken the defences down!  She’ll be torn apart!”

Rose gasped, feeling the blood drain from her face.  That meant…

That wasn’t possible.  The Dimension Cannon had pointed out Donna and Clint for a reason.  Surely it couldn’t be because they were both destined to die within the Dalek space station, trapped within the disabled TARDIS!

“Donna and Clint are still in there!” she cried, terrified for the two people she’d only known for a couple of minutes. 

“Let them out!” Jack shouted.  His hands were clenched by his sides, and Rose wondered just how he was holding himself in check.  He’d always been a bit of a hot-head, and knowing that a friend of his was going to die had to have him ready to leap onto the nearest target.

She remembered him dying on the Gamestation, a victim of the Daleks’ rampage, and once again had that terrible feeling of déjà vu.

“Your companions and the TARDIS shall perish together,” the Dalek proclaimed.  “Observe.”

A large, holographic screen flickered on, and all three of them watched as the TARDIS slammed into the space station’s core, sinking into the sun-like ball of energy.  It bobbed along the surface, sinking a little and then rising, as if trying hard to keep afloat. 

Rose felt tears gather in her eyes.  The TARDIS had been a special part of her life, and now it was going to be destroyed and there wasn’t a thing any of them could do about it.  With her would die Donna Noble and Clint Barton, two people who hadn’t stood a chance the moment the time machine’s doors had shut them inside. 

Had the TARDIS known what was going to happen?  Had she kept the pair of them inside for a reason, but that reason hadn’t meant anything when the Daleks had dumped her into the power core?

Was this why the Dimension Cannon had picked them out of everyone else in this universe?

The Doctor had his hands outstretched toward the red Dalek.  “Please, I’m begging you!  I’ll do anything!”

He would, too, if it meant he could save those two people, even though he’d barely known Clint.

“Put me in their place!” he beseeched, slapping himself in the chest with both hands.  “You can do anything to me!  I don’t care!  Just get them out of there!”

The Dalek sat there, and if a machine could look pleased, this one certainly was.  “You are connected to the TARDIS.”

“Yes,” the Doctor admitted, gritting his teeth.

“Then feel it die.”

Rose was shocked when he broke out into a sweat, despite the fact that she was very aware of the special connection between time machine and owner.  She had no idea what he was feeling, but it couldn’t be good.

Was the TARDIS screaming in agony as the energies within the core ate her alive?  Could the Doctor actually sense that the TARDIS was dying in that horrible pool of destruction?

The sheer pain in his eyes said, yes, he could.

Rose reached over and took his hand.  He grasped it like a lifeline, almost hard enough to grind her bones together, but she didn’t care.  He needed her to be there, as he witnessed the death throes of the one companion he’d had for almost as long as he’d been alive.

“Total destruction of the TARDIS in ten rels,” another of the Daleks intoned. 

The breath hitched in Rose’s chest at the countdown.  This wasn’t right!  This shouldn’t be happening!  She’d believed that the Doctor would kick Dalek arse and save the universe, but he was helpless as his time ship was devoured by the small sun at the heart of the Crucible, as the head Dalek had called it.

“Four.”

“Three.”

“Two.”

“One.”

As Rose watched, the TARDIS faded away, subsumed into the energy of the core.

Tears rolled down her cheeks.  It was like losing a best friend. She’d lived within the TARDIS for so long, had felt her living mind within her labyrinthine halls. 

And now she was gone.

As was her two passengers.

“The TARDIS has been destroyed,” the red Dalek rejoiced.  “Now tell me, Doctor…how do you feel?”

Rose had known that the Daleks were cruel, but this was obscene.  She wanted to scream and beat her fists against the hard metal shell of the monster that was before her, but it wouldn’t do any good, and would most likely get her killed.  One more companion, dead.  She didn’t think the Doctor could handle it.

“Anger?” the Dalek went on.  “Sorrow?  Despair?”

She watched as the Doctor swallowed convulsively, his face dark with age and pain beyond anything Rose could even imagine.  “Yeah.”  His voice was a mere whisper.

She wanted to comfort him, but in her heart of hearts she knew it wouldn’t help.  She wished more than anything to have the Bad Wolf back, to be able to reach into the inferno and pluck the TARDIS and her precious cargo out and save them.

But she was just a normal human being.  She didn’t have that power any longer.

“Then if emotions are so important,” the Dalek gloated, “we have surely enhanced you.”

“Yeah?” Jack challenged, his voice incandescent in rage, “then feel this!”

The gun had come out of nowhere.  Jack must have had it in a holster on his belt, but Rose hadn’t paid any attention.  Several shots rang out, bullets ricocheting off the red Dalek and not doing any damage.

The Dalek returned fire.

Jack’s body whitened out, his skeleton showing through his skin as the energy bolt struck him down.  He had enough time to scream before he was falling to the floor, the gun clattering against the tile-like material as its owner folded down beside it.

Rose couldn’t breathe.

As she went to her knees beside the friend she’d just found once again, Rose felt as if she’d been shot as well.  Her hands rested on the wool of that ridiculous coat that Jack had pulled off with aplomb, feeling the lack of movement as an abomination in someone that had been so full of life. 

She thought about the boyfriend Clint had mentioned.  Would he even know that the man he’d been dating had died a hero?  Had they been in love?  She wanted to think that was true, if he’d sent Clint to look after Jack.  Clint might have failed, but it hadn’t been his fault.  There would have been no way to do anything, once Jack had decided to lash out, even if Clint had been there, and not eaten away with Donna and the TARDIS.

Rose made a vow that, if they got out of this and defeated the Daleks, that she’d make certain that Jack’s boyfriend would know.  Perhaps she could go to his Torchwood, and they would know where this boyfriend was…Ianto, wasn’t it?”

And then it hit her.  Jack’s boyfriend was Ianto Jones.  This universe’s version, the Second in Command of Torchwood.

Rose wanted to giggle, to make some crack about Jack sleeping with his employees, but it only came out as a choked sob.

She couldn’t save him this time.  She didn’t have the power.

The Daleks had managed to kill him after everything she’d done to turn it back the first time.

“Rose.”

It was the Doctor.  His hands were on her shoulders, trying to pull him away from Jack’s body.  She didn’t want to go.

“They killed him,” she whimpered.

“I know.”  His voice was utterly calm, as if he’d been through far too much and nothing was registering with him any longer.

Maybe he had.

Donna…Jack…Clint…the TARDIS…all gone.

What were they going to do now?

The Doctor gently drew her to her feet.  She tried to struggle against him, but she was simply too emotionally wrung out to do much of anything.

“I know,” he repeated.  “Come on.”

She let him lead her from Jack.  They were leaving him with the Daleks. 

It was wrong.

She could do nothing about it.

 

 


	27. Chapter 27

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_The Dalek Crucible_ **

****

Mickey wasn’t happy, but then that had been the tone of the entire fucking day so far, so he didn’t feel like it was all a big deal at this point.

He thought about his favourite gun, tucked under an abandoned vehicle back on Earth.  He’d most likely never get it back, and that weapon had seen him through the Cybermen invasion on the alternate Earth.  He’d never even considered that he’d lose it like that.

Still, being without it meant he hadn’t gotten exterminated.  He missed it something fierce but at least he was still alive.

The Daleks had hustled them into a spaceship that that should have been a set-piece in a 50’s sci-fi movie.  It was round, and it was what would have given all UFO’s the nickname “flying saucer”.  They’d been crowded with about two dozen other humans, all of them scared shitless.  He couldn’t blame them.  Chances were they were all gonna get shot at some point in the day.

Or something worse.  With the Daleks, getting exterminated was the lesser of all the evils Mickey could come up with, and a lot of people would have said he wasn’t particularly imaginative.

But those were the ones who didn’t know about that trap they’d set for that one Cyber-Leader in Bath, that involved a ball of yarn and the half a dozen rubber ducks.  Mickey was particularly proud of that one.

He had to admit that Sarah Jane’s idea had been a good one.  They needed to get onboard this Dalek space station thing if they were going to figure out what the hell was going on.  Plus, there’s the Doctor, because if they found him they’d find Rose and that would mean Jackie could let her strop out.  She’d been really hurt that Rose had gone without saying goodbye.  Mickey didn’t feel that way, since he’d been expecting something along those lines for years, but he could certainly understand where Jackie was coming from.  It wasn’t fair to her, for Rose to just take off like that and not let her know.

Mickey loved Rose.  He’d never really stop loving her.  But he could recognise that she could be really selfish and thoughtless at times.  And those times usually had to do with the Doctor.

Really, he just couldn’t see the attraction himself.

The Doctor might be an alien and really smart and could travel in time but he was such a bloody git.

“Well,” Jackie mused softly, “this seems to be going well.”

For a certain degree of well, sure.

Only Mickey didn’t say that out loud.

The Daleks keep them all crammed together in what had to have been the hold of their ship.  After all, why keep them comfortable?  They were prisoners, after all.  Plus, Mickey was pretty sure the Daleks didn’t have the word ‘comfortable’ in their databanks.

It didn’t seem long before they arrived at the space station, which Mickey understood was called the Crucible.  Pretty poncy name in Mickey’s opinion.  He wondered who’d named it that, because it certainly wasn’t the Daleks.

Once they were docked, the prisoners were ushered out into a blank corridor.  Sarah Jane seemed pleased with the whole thing, and Mickey thought she was being mental.  Yeah, he liked her and all, but in his opinion she was just a bit too happy to be a prisoner of a homicidal race of pepper pots.  Mickey was positive it was because they were getting close to the Doctor.  Honestly, he didn’t get all this worship of the Time Lord. 

To say that Mickey disliked the Doctor was an understatement.

They’d gotten along, and Mickey did respect him for the things he could accomplish.  And hell, he could be downright scary.  Rose had once told him that one of his many nicknames was the Oncoming Storm, and Mickey could see it.

At the same time the man could be a condescending arse.  He really wanted to ask the Doctor why he hung around humans if he didn’t think they were worth it.  Personally, he thought it was a bit skeevy that a nine hundred your-old alien hung out with teenage girls.  But at least there wasn’t any sort of hanky panky going on that he could tell.

He just didn’t get it.

Anyway.

The Daleks herded them into this huge room.  Mickey took a good look around, trying to map out an escape route because there was something making every single instinct he had yell at him that this was some sort of trap.  He glanced up, and there was some sort of device in the ceiling, aimed right down at their heads.  It was dark, but he could just imagine that thing lighting up like a Christmas tree when it was turned on.

The room itself was bare.  Daleks patrolled the outer walls, their gun sticks aimed at the prisoners that were ordered to stand in the ‘designated area’, whatever the fuck that was.  As they all clumped together in the centre, Mickey felt movement beside him; as he watched, Sarah Jane dodged through the prisoners toward a door in the wall, with a large flywheel sort of control in the middle of it, just under a thick window. 

Once she was at the door – and it was a bloody miracle that none of the Daleks were paying the least bit of attention, most likely thinking they had everyone cowed – she pulled something out of her pocket that Mickey couldn’t see, but she must have used it to open the door.  She ducked inside, motioning to Mickey to follow her.

He reached toward Jackie…but she wasn’t by his side any longer.  One of the female prisoners had stumbled and fallen, and she was helping her to her feet, under the unemotional derision of one of the Daleks demanding that she stand.  The woman was terrified, gibbering to Jackie, and Mickey couldn’t make it out.

He didn’t want to leave her. She was the closest thing he had to a Mum.  Of them all in that other dimension – besides Jake, but he was off doing whatever the hell at the moment – Jackie had been the one to understand and to support him in his crusade to rid the world of the Cybermen.  She’d been his lifeline, his rock…and the idea of her getting shot by the Daleks was just wrong.

He managed to get her attention, jerking his head toward the now unlocked door.  Jackie nodded, silently agreeing to follow him, and so Mickey moved, ducking through the group of scared people and making his way toward the door, trusting that Jackie would be right behind him.

He was out into the hall beyond the door when he realised that Jackie hadn’t followed him at all.

Mickey cursed, turning back toward that room that had given him such a case of the creeps.  Sarah Jane grabbed his sleeve.  “Wait,” she hissed.

He wanted to argue with her, but then a Dalek rolled right in front of the door.

His heart in his throat, Mickey craned his neck in order to see past it.  Jackie had been held back by the woman she’d stopped to help, and she threw a look at Mickey that expressed her sorrow and apology that she hadn’t been able to go with him.  The woman was speaking to her, and Jackie turned back, and while Mickey couldn’t hear what they were saying he could tell that she was trying to soothe the other woman.

Even while in extreme danger, Jackie Tyler just had to mother someone. 

The device in the ceiling began to glow a sickly green colour.

Mickey could make out the Daleks on the other side of that door announcing a countdown, calling that thing hanging over their heads a ‘Reality Bomb’.  No, that didn’t sound at all ominous, and it set Mickey’s nerves itching under his skin as it took everything in him not to race back out there, grab Jackie, and physically drag her to safety.

She was staring up at the green thing in the ceiling.  Jackie’s mouth moved, but once again Mickey couldn’t make out a word she’d said.  He hasn’t a lip reader, damnit. 

A loud beeping sound came from his pocket.

Mickey thought his heart was gonna stop.

He dug the offending thing from his pocket.  It was the dimension jump, and the centre button was once again a pale yellow.

It had finished charging.

He suddenly couldn’t breathe.

Leaning on the thick glass panel, Mickey began to wave the jumper around, trying to get Jackie’s attention.  “It’s charged!” he shouted, needing her to hear him but at the same time knowing they’d be dead if the Daleks figured out they were just on the other side of that door. 

Her eyes widened.  She’d seen him, and she knew what he was telling her.

Mickey let out of breath he hadn’t been aware he’d been holding as she took her own dimension jumper from the pocket of her coat. 

The green glow was getting stronger. She didn’t have much time.

Jackie turned to the woman she’d helped and said something to her that Mickey thought was an apology.

Then she was pressing the button on her device.

The usual blue flash of light was subsumed in the green that suddenly flared from that thing in the ceiling.

Mickey barely had time to grab her in a hug as whatever the hell it was in that room went off.

All three of them watched as the humans in there began to disintegrate.

It was as if they were being unravelled, pulled into their individual atoms by that thing the Daleks had invented.  Mickey was horrified but he couldn’t turn away. 

It was slow, and far more terrible than anything he’d seen the Cybermen do.

He wondered if they were in any pain.  For some reason, it didn’t seem that they were but it had to hurt, being taken apart like that.

And then it was over. 

Every single human being that had been brought into that chamber was gone.  There wasn’t even any dust left to show there’d been anyone in there.

One of the Daleks proclaimed that the test was complete.

That scared Mickey more than anything, that this was simply a test and not the real thing.

 

 


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to do another two chapters today, because, once again, this was meant to be a single chapter but if I want to be able to post on Livejournal it needed to be separated. Enjoy!

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_Cardiff_ **

****

Ianto found himself hoping that Jack would call or otherwise contact him before trying to get back into the Hub on his return, because they’d blown up the main entrance and booby-trapped all the others.

The last thing he wanted was for his mate to get blown up.  That would certainly put a damper on any celebrating that might occur after the Daleks are defeated and the Earth moved back to where it belonged.

Because Ianto wouldn’t contemplate any other ending for this. 

He sat at Toshiko’s station as his technician still slept, his eyes on the scans of the twenty-six other planets and the Dalek space station.  The activity around the station had quietened down a little, and the dragon couldn’t help but wonder if something was going on that they didn’t know about.

The rest of the team was doing other tasks.  Patrick was still in the armoury, but Ianto wondered if he was doing yet another inventory just to keep busy, instead of actually finding something that would have been effective against the Daleks.  He’d also been talking with his various family members, especially his uncle, acting as an unofficial liaison to SHIELD, now that Clint was off with Jack.

Rhys was at his station, his eyes on the Daleks that had camped out on the Plass.  They hadn’t left, but they weren’t doing anything either, and it had Ianto very worried about what they were planning.  Patrick had suggested that they take the invisible lift up and spy on them, but the dragon had nixed that quite quickly.  One: there was no guarantee that the Daleks would have been fooled by the perception filter; Two: they would have had to take the Hub out of the partial lockdown that Ianto had ordered, and that might have given the Daleks an opportunity they really didn’t need; and Three: Ianto had spent enough time setting up the bomb on the lift mechanism, and he didn’t want to have to climb up there to remove it before it was safe to do so.

Really, he’d been glad while he’d been up on the gantry up there that Myfanwy wasn’t in the Hub any longer.  Ianto knew the pteranodon, and she would have been perfectly happy to hang out with him up there while he’d worked, bugging him for chocolate and possibly blowing both of them up in the process.

Deborah was sitting next to the police radio, which had gone near silent, the coppers having gone to ground in their own stations in order to avoid the Daleks.  Ianto couldn’t blame them for it; after all, even the looting had stopped after the initial attack.  The Lord Mayor had stressed that all civilians should stay in their homes, and on the whole they had, without much fuss.

But then, this was Cardiff…the long-term residents were fairly used to the weird happening and could cope with it.

Owen was watching over Toshiko, who had slipped into a sleep so deep nothing seemed to disturb her.  It didn’t hurt that the entire team was quiet, lost in the silence of the invasion above their heads.  They were waiting…waiting for a sign that things were happening, that they could leave the Hub and actually do something to protect the world out there, instead of cowering belowground.

There were moments when it was almost impossible for Ianto to sit there and wait.  He wanted to be out there, using his flame on the Daleks, burn them off his world.  To be able to go to Alice and Estelle and Kathy and Andy, to make his stand with them against the aliens who have stolen the Earth and damaged her in the process.

But his team had been right to keep him from facing the Daleks that had come to the Hub.  His scales might have been proof against many things, but he seriously doubted they would have saved him from Dalek guns.  He would have been cut down, leaving his mate alone after such a short time together.  Ianto wouldn’t do that, not if he could avoid it, because it would be disappointing Jack and it would be a cold day in hell before Ianto would ever consider doing that.  Jack didn’t deserve to be alone. 

Ianto had sworn his eternity to his mate, and he would do his utmost to fulfil that vow.

A soft ping sounded through the monitor’s speakers, making him jump a little.

It pulled his attention away from the planets orbiting their new, Dalek-made, centre, and to a small box that had appeared at the corner of the screen.  It flashed, making the dragon frown at it, and he moved a curser over to click on it, wondering what mainframe was trying to tell him.

The Torchwood mainframe was a biomechanical computer, and was as self-aware as an alien device could be.  Everyone thought of mainframe as a ‘she’, and she was closest to Toshiko, who doted on her as if she was the technician’s own child.  Mainframe was fond of throwing up information that she thought Toshiko would need, and in fact had been downright useful in that respect many times over the years.  It was her way of communicating, since she couldn’t physically speak.

Next in favour with mainframe was Ianto himself.  The dragon thought of her a kindred spirit; each the last of their kind on Earth, and he was certain that the mainframe somehow saw him the same way.  While she wasn’t quite as ‘chatty’ with Ianto as she was with Toshiko, there were those times when she would be helpful to him, usually having to do with the Archives.

But now, apparently, she was trying to tell him something.

The box opened, revealing an instant message window.

The word, _Hello,_ appeared within it.

Ianto frowned.  This wasn’t mainframe.  This was someone trying to get into the system, and mainframe was letting them in.  This never happened; Toshiko had spent too much time in buffering up the firewalls and passcodes, setting dead ends and oubliettes, and adding false information and trapdoors for anyone to just get into the system.  The only one who could override every security measure was mainframe, and it looked as if that was what she was doing.

Even the sub-wave hadn’t done that; it had just gotten into communications, which was an entirely different system and not run through mainframe, even though she did monitor and record it.  Ianto had already made a mental note for Toshiko to work on that when she was feeling better.

So, Ianto decided he should find out just what was going on.

He typed, _Who is this?,_ into the message box.

 _I am called JARVIS,_ was the response.  _I am the artificial intelligence created by Tony Stark.  I have been searching for the one who encrypted the information on the creatures known as the Daleks that was sent to SHIELD._

Ianto was impressed.  Those encryptions had been written by Toshiko herself, and for Tony Stark’s A.I. to have broken through them to trace the information back to Torchwood, showed an intuitive intelligence that wasn’t usual within an operating system.

No wonder mainframe had let JARVIS through.

Still, Ianto couldn’t let JARVIS into mainframe all the way.  There were too many dangerous and secret things stored within her, and the dragon couldn’t risk any of that getting out.

He might not have the technical finesse that Toshiko had, but Ianto certainly knew how to shut out unwanted intruders.

_I am sorry, but you aren’t allowed to be here._

With that little piece of politeness, Ianto entered the override code that would block any further intrusions from Stark’s A.I.

The message box vanished.

Ianto found that more than a little satisfying.

 

 


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second chapter today. :)

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_Cardiff_ **

 

“You know,” the dragon addressed the screen, “you can’t just let anyone in, even if they _are_ a friendly intelligence.”

“You talking to the monitor?” Patrick asked from just behind him.

To Ianto’s credit, he didn’t jump at the sudden presence.

“Mainframe,” he answered, as if speaking to Torchwood’s computer was an everyday occurrence.

Well, for Toshiko, it was.  Only she used intricate lines of code to get her messages across.

“Apparently, she’s letting strange computers into her system,” he went on.  He turned his chair.  “I think you might want to speak to your uncle about disseminating Torchwood files to civilians.  One Tony Stark, to be precise.”

Patrick’s eyebrows ascended toward his hairline.  “ _My_ Uncle Phil?  The man who keeps more secrets than the Mona Lisa’s smile?  _That_ Uncle Phil?” His tone was so incredulous it brought a smirk to Ianto’s face.

“I’m sure he didn’t actually tell Stark we were the ones who passed along the information on the Daleks,” the dragon allowed.  “However, Stark’s A.I. was able to back trace to us.  Which was rather impressive, I thought.”

Patrick shrugged. “I’m sure he was hoping that Stark would be able to come up with something we could use to fight the Daleks.  But I’ll mention it to him.”

Ianto waved it off.  “I think we have more important things at the moment, and if Stark really can invent us a weapon of some sort – “

And with that, the world tilted.

The dragon would have fallen off the chair if not for Patrick, but he didn’t even register the American’s hiss of pain as he took on Ianto’s weight to keep him from hitting the floor.

Neither did he hear his teammate shout for help.  He was too busy trying to stay conscious.

Something was seriously wrong with the planet.  Ianto could hear it screaming in his mind, wiping away his awareness of anything but the agony of the world he was connected to.  Green flame licked across his vision, obscuring everything in a sickly verdant haze that engulfed him like the thickest of pea soup fogs.

His nerves were burning as well, a St Elmo’s fire coruscating along his human skin and deep into his bones, passing through him from the centre of the Earth.  Not only was the planet screaming, he was as well, ripping from his throat with an inhuman roar that he was barely aware of making. 

He could feel hands on him, but that very touch sent bright flares of pain through him, and he fought to get free.  Was someone yelling at him?  He couldn’t tell, not with the mental discordance in his head, drowning out everything but his own anguish and the Earth’s.

Eventually, though, the Earth settled, and Ianto came back to himself little by little.  The overhead lighting was too strong, and he winced away from him, little needles of discomfort stabbing deep into his eyes.  His entire body felt wrung out and was throbbing in time with his heartbeat, and it was obvious that he was flat on his back on the floor of the Hub, the hard concrete cold through the material of his shirt.  His throat felt raw, and it hurt to swallow.

At least he hadn’t transformed into his true form, because the way he was feeling Ianto seriously doubted he would have been able to change back.  Plus, he didn’t even want to consider the damage he might have done to the Hub and his teammates.

The light was blocked out by a very worried Rhys, who was leaning over him, a bottle of water in his hand.  “Take a drink,” he instructed, tucking a hand under Ianto’s head and helping him to manoeuvre just enough so he wouldn’t spill it all over himself.

The water felt heavenly going down.  Rhys let him relax back, and this time his head was pillowed on someone’s knees.  A wisp of blonde hair let him know just who was letting him use them as a cushion.  Cool fingers stroked across his forehead, and Ianto sighed at the comfort it instilled.

“What happened?” he managed to croak. 

“No idea,” Rhys answered.  “But whatever the hell it was, it affected both you and Tosh.  She’s in worse shape than you are, though.”  He shivered slightly. “She was bleeding from her ears…”

“According to the readings,” Patrick’s voice said from somewhere nearby, “there was an intense burst of energy from all the planets, channelled toward the Dalek space station.  No idea what it was for, but mainframe said it was a single string of highly charged z-neutrinos…whatever the hell that is.”

No, Ianto didn’t know either.  As worried as he was for Toshiko, he really wished she was able to interpret what the scanners were saying and to translate for those who weren’t so scientifically knowledgeable. 

The dragon struggled to sit up, needing to check on the rest of the team.  “OI, Dragon Boy!” Owen snapped, appearing from out of nowhere and looking totally annoyed.  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

He really wished he could just collapse back onto the floor, but Ianto was the Second, and he couldn’t afford the luxury of wallowing in the little bursts of agony that flared throughout his body as he moved.  “What does it look like I’m doing?” he answered, his voice a growl that sounded more like what came from his dragon form than his human. 

“It looks like you’re being an idiot,” the medic snarked. 

“Is that your medical opinion?”

“Damn straight it is!”

Ianto didn’t have his usual patience where Owen Harper was concerned, and he let his anger show as he snarled, “I do not have time to indulge you, Dr Harper.  We are in the midst of an invasion and being flat on my back isn’t in the agenda for today.  So, I suggest you either take a step back, or help me up.”

Owen’s eyes went wide, and he did step back in surprise.  Ianto felt a bit guilty at letting his bad mood get the better of him.  He was more afraid than he had been in a long time, and he was taking it out on the man who was actually concerned about his well-being, even if he was crap at showing it. 

“And if you collapse again?” Owen asked acerbically.  “We’re the ones who have to carry your heavy arse to the medical bay.” 

Ianto could tell he was scrambling to cover his worry – and a little hurt, if the flash in his dark eyes was any indication – by being rude even as he was pointing out that the dragon wasn’t exactly in the best of shape. He let the man get away with it, because Owen did have a point: whatever the Daleks were doing to the planet could very easily incapacitate him again, and there wasn’t a damned thing they could do to stop it from happening.

And, next time, it could be worse.

Ianto sighed.  “I know, Owen,” he capitulated…at least, a little.  “But I can’t let that stop me from doing my job.”

The medic relaxed a little, probably due to Ianto’s conciliatory tone.  “Well, you’ve always been a stubborn bastard,” he commented.  “There’s nothing medically I can do about that.”  He jabbed his finger toward Ianto.  “But if it happens again I’m sedating you and you _will_ like it.  Understood?”

Ianto pretended not to hear the silent _when it happens again_ that he knew Owen was thinking.  “Understood.”  Each and every one of them was concerned for him, and for Toshiko, and he loved them for it.   “But until that _does_ happen I’m going to get on with it, alright?”

“Fine.” Owen threw up his hands, more for show than to communicate his actual disdain for the entire situation.  Then he reached down, grabbed one of the dragon’s outstretched hands, and pulled him up, with a little help from Rhys and Deborah.  Owen gave a little grunt, and Ianto was instantly worried that he might have exacerbated his medic’s injury, but he knew better than to bring attention to it.  Owen would just deny it.

“What about Toshiko?” he asked when he felt himself steady enough to stand on his own, which wasn’t doing his head any good.  He thought about asking for a painkiller but decided against it, not wanting to be any muzzier than he already was.

He glanced over at the sofa.  Toshiko was curled up under a blanket, and she was trembling even though she was obviously unconscious.  Her face was sheet white, lashes black against her cheeks, and tear tracks painted her skin…only they were a faint reddish colour, as if her tears had had blood mixed in with the salt water. 

“It’s bad,” Owen murmured.  He raked a hand through his hair.  “And I can only assume what the other Great Dragon Friends were going through.”

“It might not be quite as bad with them as it is with Toshiko,” the dragon replied. “They aren’t quite as connected to the Earth as she is.  But, I know they have to be suffering.”

Ianto wanted nothing more than to go to each one of them, to protect them from what was being done to their planet, but he couldn’t leave the Hub.  Not only would he run the risk of meeting up with the Daleks, but he wasn’t feeling well enough to drive anywhere, let alone fly.  And, in the air, he’d be a hard target for the Dalek ships.

“This needs to be over.”  Deborah’s hand rested on Ianto’s arm. 

He looked at her. Her face was resolute. He was so very proud of her for it.

“Yes, it does,” the dragon agreed. 

He just wasn’t certain how they were going to achieve that goal.

 

 


	30. Chapter 30

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_The Dalek Crucible_ **

****

Rose let herself be led away from the dead body of her friend, and toward what felt like hell.

She wasn’t a stranger to death.  She’d seen more of it than most, travelling with the Doctor and getting into all sorts of messes.  Shit, the main reason she’d never really warmed to the other Pete Tyler was because she still vividly remembered sitting beside the dying body of her real father, her knees sore from the asphalt and weeping so hard she’d had a headache for hours afterward.  That had been her father, and not the lookalike who’d married her mother and who’d started a new family with her.

But this…this was too much.

Four deaths, one right after the other, and yes, she was including the TARDIS. Of them all, she’d known the time machine the longest, having travelled within her for years.  She’d been a comforting presence in her life, and Rose had found that she’d missed the TARDIS nearly as much as she had the Doctor.  That one had hit her with the force of a sledgehammer, because she’d believed that nothing could destroy the TARDIS.

And yet, the Daleks had done it.

With two innocents onboard her.

She didn’t know either Donna Noble or Clint Barton.  Of them both, Donna hurt the worst because it meant the Doctor had lost one more companion to circumstances beyond his control.  If Rose hadn’t found a way back, it also would have meant that the Doctor would have been alone, and the Time Lord never did well when he was by himself.  He _needed_ someone with him, to ground him and to give him the support he needed to get things done.  The Doctor being on his own was a recipe for disaster.

But she’d been led to Clint Barton through the Dimension Cannon, and through his being a part of Jack’s Torchwood.  Him being friends with Jack automatically made him a friend of hers, and she would miss not being able to get to know him better.  Plus, she’d really wanted to ask him about the bow and arrow.  It was an odd weapon to use, at least to her mind. 

Then there was Jack.

The first time he’d died she’d used the heart of the TARDIS to resurrect him, because she hadn’t been able to stand the idea of him being gone.  When she’d eventually recovered from having all that power in her head Jack had been gone, staying behind to help humanity rebuild after the Daleks – or so the Doctor said, and she was beginning to think there was much more to that story than she’d thought – and while she’d been disappointed she’d thought he would be doing good work in the future, and had wished him well.  The Doctor had even claimed that they might go back and visit one day, but that had never happened and Rose had ended up cut off from almost everything she’d known.

She’d wanted to find out how he’d gotten back to this time, although she assumed it had to do with his Vortex Manipulator.  The question though has been _why_ , when the Doctor had been so certain he’d be staying in the future.

There was also the issue of the obvious coldness between the two.

Rose supposed she’d have to ask the Doctor now…if they got out of this somehow.  And if he’d give her the answers she wanted.

The Daleks herded them down into the bowels of the Crucible.  The farther they went, the less hope Rose had.  Surely the Doctor had some sort of plan?  She’d seen him get captured before, sometimes on purpose in order to get deeper into enemy territory before going all Oncoming Storm on them, but there was something very different about this situation.  She glanced at the Doctor, and she could see it in his face: the pain, and the despair.

All of a sudden, Rose wished for nothing more than to be back on the other side of the dimensional wall, with her Mum and Mickey, and even with Pete.  She should never have talked him into using Torchwood finances in order to build the Dimension Cannon.  She wanted the memories of an unbeaten Doctor, instead of this sad, damaged Time Lord who only resembled the man she’d fallen in love with.

The red Dalek had called this place the Vault, and that was what it looked like: dark, and dingy, and more like a cellar than the lair of the being who’d created the Daleks.  Rose would have thought that Davros would have been more revered, instead of being stuck away where no one would see him. 

There was a large device in the middle of the room.  It looked almost as if it had been grown there, with tubes connecting it to the ceiling.  Rose could tell the Doctor wanted to go over and examine it, but the Daleks guarding them kept him at her side; so did the hand on her elbow, where it had stayed ever since they’d been taken away from Jack.

Rose swallowed hard.  Yeah, she didn’t want to think of it as Jack’s _body_.

Waiting for them was Davros.

Rose had seen him on the sub-wave, but in person he had a presence that was hard to ignore.  Davros might have been a wizened-looking alien in a sort of wheelchair that was too much like a Dalek body for her peace of mind, but Rose could practically _feel_ the crazy coming off of him in waves.  Where someone else in his position might have engendered pity in her, Davros only instilled fear.

“Activate the holding cells,” Davros ordered.  Compared to the Daleks’ grating tones, Davros sounded almost…paternal, even with that undertone of the mechanical it had.  It was disturbing in so many ways, and despite not wanting to show weakness in front of him Rose couldn’t help but shiver.

Light flared around her, and then faded.  Even though there didn’t appear to be anything surrounding her, Rose could feel the static of it against her skin, the hairs on her arms standing up. She tentatively reached out, and her fingers touched the energy barrier, sending tingles down into her spine.

Davros rolled toward the Doctor, who was in his own holding cell.  He looked up at the Time Lord, and a smirk decorated his twisted lips.  “Excellent,” he murmured.  “Even when powerless, a Time Lord is best contained.”

The Doctor crossed his arms, meeting Davros’ gaze with one that had lost the inner pain and had gained a steady anger.  “Still afraid of me then?”

In anyone else that phrase would have sounded cocky, but with the Doctor he was simply stating a truth.  Rose wondered at the history between these two, because there obviously was one, and if she had to guess it most likely went back at least centuries.

Davros didn’t dignify that with a response.  “It’s time we talked, you and I.  After all the time that has passed.”

“Oh, no no no no,” the Doctor snorted.  “We’re not doing the nostalgia tour.  I want to know what’s happening, right here and right now, because the Supreme Dalek said this was the Vault, yeah?”  He uncrossed his arms, his own smirk a rival of Davros’.  “As in a dungeon...or cellar…or maybe prison?  You’re not in charge of the Daleks, are you?”

Rose was surprised by the outburst, but at the same time she realised the Doctor was right.  Someone as important as Davros wasn’t kept away from the action.  She’d felt the same thing when she’d seen the Vault, and she felt pleased that the Doctor had noticed it as well.

“They’ve got you locked away down here,” the Doctor went on mercilessly, “in the basement, so to speak, like…what, a servant?”  The smirk grew into a knowing smile. “Slave?” He leaned as far forward as he could without touching the side of the cell.  “Court jester?”

Davros actually jerked his chair away from the Doctor, as if he was afraid that he was going to break out and come after him.  Rose couldn’t help her grin; it was just too much like the Doctor to turn the tables like that. 

Davros had been right: even when helpless, the Doctor still had power.

Just with that exchange, Rose’s doubts eased. Yes, she still mourned all of their losses, but she was starting to see that this could, indeed, end in their favour.

“We have an…arrangement,” Davros answered, almost defensively.

The Doctor’s smile went pleased.  “No, I have the word…you’re the Daleks’ pet!”

Davros wasn’t happy about that at all, and Rose could see it.  She wished she could give him a fist bump in celebration.

Instead of haranguing the Doctor once more, Davros turned his attention onto her.  “He’s so full of ire.  And you travel with him?” He sounded dismissive, and it had Rose bristling even though intellectually she knew he was just trying to push her buttons.

“Leave her alone,” the Doctor snapped.

“She’s mine to do with as I please,” Davros answered.

“Oi!” Rose finally rose to her own defence. “I’m not anybody’s, least of all yours!”

Davros moved his chair back toward the Doctor, and Rose took a breath to calm herself down.  Davros had wanted to get a rise out of her, and he’d succeeded.  Now that he’d done that, his attention was back on the Doctor.

“You are here just in time to see my final triumph,” he said.

The Doctor scoffed.  “Can’t be much of a triumph if even your creations are ignoring you.”

“And this is the Time Lord who has butchered millions,” Davros practically sang.  “I wonder what else we’ll see of you before I kill you.” 

“You’re more likely going to bore me to death before you get on with it.”

Rose wanted to jump up and down and applaud at the anger that raged across Davros’ wrinkled face.  “Oh no, Doctor, you won’t be bored at all when you see what my ultimate plan is.”

“We are ready to begin the test,” one of the Daleks that had stayed after bringing them in.

“What test?” the Doctor asked, and Rose could see he was honestly curious.  “What are you testing?”

The smirk was back on Davros’ face.  “My Reality Bomb.”

 _“Testing calibration of the Reality Bomb in ten rels,”_ another Dalek voice said over what must have been an intercom system piped into the Vault.

The Dalek on the speaker began to count down.

“Behold,” Davros announced in an almost reverent tone, “the apotheosis of my genius.”  He used one metallic finger to flick a control on his chair. 

In front of them a large screen blinked on, revealing a large room with about two dozen people standing in the centre, hands on their heads and under the guard of several Daleks.  Each of them was obviously terrified, from the expressions on their faces and their body language.

Rose held her breath.  Something terrible was going to happen, and all she could do was watch. 

When the countdown reached zero, a green light flashed from something in the ceiling of the room.

The people within began to disintegrate.

It was horrible, having to stand there and watch.  Rose could tell those innocent people were in agony, and yet they couldn’t move, or do anything to escape.  Their bodies appeared to break down, particles floating away, until nothing was left.

Rose was gasping with the sheer revulsion that flooded through her.  She couldn’t even begin to contemplate what had just happened.  Davros had created something so appalling it was indescribable.  “Doctor,” she whispered, “what happened?”

“Energy,” Davros answered instead.  It was obvious that the Doctor had been struck speechless by what they’d just witnessed.  “Every atom in existence is bound by an electrical field.  The Reality Bomb cancels it out.  Structure falls apart.”  He was gloating, but then it was possible that he had every right to do so.  “That test was focussed on the prisoners alone.  Full transmission will dissolve every form of matter.”

In that moment, everything that she’d seen in the alternate dimension made sense.  “The stars going out,” she gasped. 

Time moved differently in that other place.  Rose knew that it was faster; she’d come from the year 2012 and into 2009.  What happened here had affected that universe quicker, even though the Reality Bomb hadn’t been activated here as yet. 

She’d seen the endgame of Davros’ plan.  The Reality Bomb had destroyed the walls between the universes even before it had been set off. 

All that hope she’d gained back was gone once more.  If they Reality Bomb was already affecting other dimensions and hadn’t even been set off yet, what hope did they have in stopping it?

“The twenty-seven planets,” the Doctor was saying, yet she barely paid attention.  “They become one vast transmitter, blasting that wavelength throughout the multi-verse.”

“Across the entirety of the universe,” Davros confirmed.  “Never stopping, never faltering, never fading.  People and planets and stars will become dust, and the dust will become atoms, and the atoms will become nothing.  And the wavelength will continue, breaking through into every dimension, every parallel world, every single corner of creation.”  His voice had gone up and louder all throughout his speech, until he was practically shouting.  “This is my ultimate victory, Doctor!  The destruction of reality itself!”

Davros was mad.  If Rose hadn’t already known it, this would have been the tipping point in the favour of complete insanity.  Destroying all of reality? How did that make any sense?

 _“We are receiving a message from the planet Earth,”_ the Dalek said over the intercom.

The image from the now-empty chamber where the test had taken place changed to reveal a control room, small and narrow and lined with banks of computers.  In the centre of the screen was a young woman, and Rose recognised her as Martha Jones, who Harriet had claimed had also travelled with the Doctor.  It must have been after Rose had become trapped in the other dimension; she couldn’t be jealous, because the Doctor really was rubbish on his own. 

 _“This is Doctor Martha Jones,”_ she said, _“representing the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, on behalf of the Human race…”_

 

 


	31. Chapter 31

 

**_The TARDIS_ **

****

Oh, no, there was no way Clint was going to remain trapped onboard the TARDIS.

When he’d helped carry the injured Time Lord into the blue box that he knew was an honest-to-God time machine, Clint had been expecting something mind-blowing.  He’d done his research, had learned about the Doctor and his appearances on Earth, as part of the file he’d gotten when he’d asked about Torchwood.  Hell, even Phil had told him about his own family history with the alien; about Canton Everett Delaware III and the invasion of the Silence, and how the Doctor had managed to stop it by subliminal message.  It had been exciting to know that his lover had had nearly personal knowledge of an actual alien, even though Phil had never actually met the Time Lord.

Still, his mind had been completely and utterly blown the moment he’d set foot onboard the ship.

He hadn’t been prepared for the feeling that the ship was alive.  While it wasn’t actually speaking to him, there was this simple brush across his mind that was warm and gentle, and very friendly.  Clint wasn’t sure if he was ecstatic or creeped out about it, to be honest.  He thought, on the whole, that the TARDIS was beautiful and exotic and he felt as if he was on the cusp of something wonderful.

That was, of course, before he’d found himself mysteriously trapped inside said ship while it was being shaken to pieces.

Clint held on for dear life to one of the coral-like struts that surrounded the central console as the TARDIS jumped and shuddered, small explosions sounding along the walls and the controls, smoke beginning to fill the large room.  He could just make out Donna, on the metallic grating of the floor, trying hard not to slide all over as the TARDIS jerked sharply around them.

He saw the very moment that Donna reached out to touch the jar that held that creepy hand that the Doctor had claimed to have been his. 

Clint had almost been expecting the whole regeneration thing, as well.  In the files, there were listed at least eleven different men claiming to be the Doctor, and there was this thing where, when he died, he’d get an entire new body and personality to match.  So, when the guy had begun glowing and Jack had mentioned ‘regeneration’, Clint had known where it was going.

He was positive he wasn’t the only one shocked when it didn’t happen.  The explanation kinda went over his head, but Clint didn’t have a degree in alien biology and was fine with not really understanding it all.

The hand was glowing as Donna’s hand touched the glass. 

Clint wasn’t even aware of moving, until he was yanking Donna away and the glass shattered as his fingers brushed against it.  An electrical shock went through him as he rolled with her, protecting her with his body, feeling a couple of the shards hitting his jacket but not penetrating the leather.

He curled around her, hoping to keep them both from being flung all over the room.  It gave him a ringside seat for what happened next.

The glow that had been surrounding the hand stretched outward, flowing along the unsteady grating, until it had formed the shape of a man.  The golden light faded, revealing a naked person who looked exactly like the Doctor.

The man sat up, eyes darting around, taking in what was going on around them.  Those eyes met Clint’s, and they frowned as they regarded him and Donna, cuddled up on the heaving floor. 

Then he was moving, clawing his way up onto the console, fingers stabbing at buttons in a frenzy.  The ship steadied, and a strange grinding, whirring noise echoed throughout the room.  The now-familiar warm presence of the TARDIS, having cut out when the power had been lost, touched the archer’s mind, and Clint relaxed his grip on Donna, somehow knowing that everything was fine. 

“Doctor?” Donna asked tentatively.

“Oh yes,” the man answered fiercely.

“You’re naked.” She sounded almost grossed out.

Clint didn’t understand why she would.  If this was the Doctor, then he wasn’t exactly a dog.  Only he wasn’t going to say that out loud.  He had a man of his own at home, after all.

“Oh yes,” he said once more, just as fiercely.

Then he was up and off the floor, heading deeper into the TARDIS, leaving Clint and Donna alone. 

Clint looked down at the woman he was currently holding.  Donna was shaken, and he couldn’t blame her.  Things were getting just too weird, and this wasn’t a thing he’d had any sort of previous experience with. “So,” he said, “is this a Time Lord thing?”

He sat up, releasing his grasp on her.  Donna looked vaguely disappointed.  “No idea,” she said, “but believe me it’s a question I intend to ask him when he gets back!”

Clambering to his feet, Clint held out a hand to her, which Donna accepted.  She held on a little too long, but then Clint couldn’t blame her, because he was just as freaked out as she was and comfort was a good thing.  He needed just a little bit of it himself.  He wanted to go looking for his bow, but Donna wouldn’t let go and he wasn’t going to force her to. 

“Can you find out where we are?” If they’d moved in space and time, there was no telling where they’d ended up.

“Nope, sorry.”  Donna shrugged.  “I’m not a bloody Time Lord so I can’t work the controls.  Although, if you ask me, half the stuff the Doctor does around the console is just to show off.  Just my opinion, mind.”

Clint knew, then and there, that he and Donna were going to be friends.  He just adored her attitude and wanted her to meet Natasha, because he thought they’d get along like a house on fire.

All that red hair, it was more of a statement than a metaphor, actually.

Wait, was that a metaphor?

Hell, it didn’t matter.

“So, tell me,” he said, “just how did you meet the Doctor, anyway?”

He was really interested.  Clint had read a lot about the Doctor’s many companions.  There had even been a pair of them that had been recruited into SHIELD during its earliest days under Director Carter, and were both listed on the Wall of Valour at the Triskelion.  In fact, Clint had wanted to ask Rhys if he had been related to Rory Williams, but changed his mind.  He was certain there’d have been a certain amount of bragging if there’d been any sort of blood tie between them, since Rhys was very proud of his roots.  Clint already knew about the great-grandfather who’d saved the world by stitching time back together.

Donna was in the midst of telling him about the Racnoss under the Thames when the Doctor Double showed back up, dressed in a blue pinstriped suit and looking even more manic than when he’d left.  He darted about the console, touching various places on it, as if soothing it.

Maybe that was what he was actually doing.  After all, it was a part of the TARDIS, and the TARDIS was alive, so it made sense if the guy was trying to make her feel better.  “All repaired, Lovely,” he cooed.  Then he turned to the pair of them, putting a finger to his lips.  “Shush.  No one knows we’re here.  Got to keep quiet.  Silent running, like on submarines when you can’t even drop a spanner.”

Clint knew, from his short time in Cardiff, that ‘spanner’ was a fancy name for ‘wrench’.  Did the Doctor even have something that low-tech on this ship?

“Don’t drop a spanner!” the Doctor Double warned.  Then he smoothed a hand down the front of his suit. “I like blue.  What do you think?”

“I think you’re bonkers,” Donna answered sharply, and yet with an undertone of fondness.

The man frowned. “Why?  What’s wrong with blue?”

Then she asked the question she’d threatened with before he’d shown up.  “Is that what Time Lords do?  Lop a bit off, and grow another one?”

“Time Lords are like worms!” Clint couldn’t help but chortle.  Yes, he was in serious danger of adoring Donna Noble.

The Doctor – and he was going to be the Doctor Double until Clint could come up with something new – looked affronted.  “No no no no no!  I’m unique!” He puffed out his chest.  “Never been another like me.  Because all of that regeneration energy went into the hand, the one I lost to the Sycorax.”  He raised his right hand, waggling the fingers.  “Look at my hand!  I love that hand.”

Clint thought he might just be a little bit nuts.  But in a good way, because he knew the difference between good crazy and bad crazy.

“But then you touched it.  Wham!” He slammed his hands together.  To either of their credit, neither Clint or Donna jumped.  “Instantaneous biological metacrisis.  I grew out of you.”  He frowned again.  “Both of you, actually.”  Then he shrugged.  “I guess it could have been worse.” 

Wait…what?

Donna was snarking back before Clint could even react.  “Oi!  Watch it, Spaceman!”

“Oi!  Watch it, Earth girl.”  Then the Doctor Double recoiled.  “Ooo!  I sound like you. All sort of…rough.”

Clint was insulted on Donna’s behalf. “Hey!”

Donna had her hands on her hips, and she was glaring so hard Clint was surprised the Doctor Double didn’t explode into flames.

“And what did I get from you?” he demanded, stabbing a finger at Clint.  Then he squinted.  “Is that a bit of bacon grease on your collar?” He jerked back again.  “Are human eyes supposed to be this good?”

“I’m not called Hawkeye because I loved reading _Last of the Mohicans_ ,” Clint bragged.  He was damned proud of his eyesight, thank you very much!  And he actually had never read James Fennimore Cooper, but Phil had and he’d ended up being talked into seeing that movie with Daniel Day-Lewis.

Then the Doctor Double was pressing his hand to his chest.  “Oh, you are kidding me!”

“What’s wrong?” Donna demanded, suddenly worried.

“No way!”

“What?” she shouted, as if trying to break through all the babble.

“Spanner!” he warned.

Clint wondered if the Doctor was like this all the time, or if this was something that the Doctor Double only had.  Because it was starting to get just a tad bit annoying.

“I’ve only got one heart,” he finally exclaimed, his expression horrified.  “This body only has one heart!”

Clint barely resisted the urge to shout, “Spanner!” at him. 

Of course, those files he’d gotten had mentioned that Time Lords had two hearts.  He tried to imagine what that was like, and decided he couldn’t.  But it must have been weird for him to discover that he’d lost one during this metacrisis thing. 

The archer still wasn’t sure how he felt about him having a bit of Clint in him.  It really didn’t bear thinking about, to be honest.

“That’s disgusting,” the Doctor Double said, putting his foot right through Clint’s sympathetic feelings.

“Oi!” Donna shouted again.  She was practically quivering in rage at all the insults. 

“Oi!” the Doctor Double repeated at the same rather loud volume.

“Stop it!” Clint butted in.

“No, wait,” the Doctor Double cried.  “I’m part Time Lord…part human.”  There was that horrified look once more.  “Well…isn’t that wizard?”

The sheer sarcasm in that statement would have put Owen Harper back on his heels, and Owen was most likely the most sarcastic person Clint had ever met.  He was actually a bit offended, for both himself and Donna, and that had never once been the case when Owen had launched one of his own rather nasty barbs. 

He thought it was the condescension.  Clint despised that sort of attitude, having had to deal with that sort of thing during his childhood.  How did Donna deal with it when she travelled with the Doctor?

By sassing back, as evidenced by her next remark.

“At least I’m not some dumbo who talks down to his friends, am I!”

The Doctor Double cocked his head, eyes regarding Donna closely, a line between his brows as he considered her.  “I can see it, you know.”

She crossed her arms, looking as if she was about to start tapping her foot at any moment.  “See what?”

“All that attitude,” he said, “all that lip, because all this time you think you’re not worth it.”

Donna went pale.  Clint could see the beginning of a tremble in the set of her shoulders.  “Stop it.”

He wanted to break into this conversation and demand the same thing.  Was this bastard deliberately pointing out her secrets, or was he just an oblivious jerk?

But the Doctor Double went on, “Shouting at the world because no one’s listening.”

“That’s enough,” Clint growled, feeling very protective of her.

That got the man’s attention, and he turned those dark, knowing eyes on Clint.  “You’re almost the exact same way,” he went on inexorably.  “Being charming because you’ve been told most of your life that you’re not good enough, or strong enough, so you have to be the very best you can be so people will think you’re confident when, really, you’re not.”

That earned the Doctor Double a sock in the jaw.

Clint didn’t need to have all his faults dragged out into the open like that.  It had taken a lot of time and effort for him to finally dig himself out of the hole his abusive Dad and equally abusive mentor had dropped him into, and bringing all that shit up wasn’t doing anyone any favours.

The Doctor Double blinked up at him from the metal grating of the TARDIS, obviously surprised by Clint’s reaction.  “If you’re done raking up my shitty past,” he gritted, “don’t you think we should be doing something about the Daleks?”

Donna was shaking her head.  “I’d say thanks but you beat me to the punch.  No pun intended.”

Clint snorted, and then, to show that there really were no hard feelings, he held his hand out to help the Doctor Double to his feet.  The guy looked at the offered hand as if he was expecting it to do something else unexpected, but then accepted it, letting Clint haul him up.

There was a sudden beeping noise coming from the console, and the Doctor Double raced around it, pushing a button and dragging a screen down to eye level.  He frowned at what he was seeing, and both Donna and Clint joined him.  Looking over the man’s shoulder, Clint tried to interpret what was on the monitor, but it was in some weird language he’d never seen before.

Probably the Time Lord’s own language.  It resembled nothing more than a bunch of circles and whorls and it made him slightly dizzy to look at.

“What is it?” Donna demanded. 

“The twenty-seven planets…” the Doctor Double mumbled. 

Clint glanced over at Donna, and the woman looked as perplexed as he felt. “You mind explaining that to the Earth kids?”

“It’s a single string of zed-neutrinos compressed…no way.”

“What the hell is that when it’s at home?” Clint demanded.  He felt a bit like someone who’d been hanging around Tony Stark too long.

“It shouldn’t be possible,” was the answer.  “But what it would do is wipe out reality…”

Well, shit.


	32. Chapter 32

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is going to be another two chapter day. Darn it, I hate LJ's posting limits! But you all get two chapters so I'm sure that makes up for it. :)

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_Osterhagen Station One_ **

**_Nuremberg, Germany_ **

****

The small control station under the castle was as high-tech as the building above it was the opposite.

Martha shrugged off the Indigo device, dropping it into the corner as she made her way between the pair of computer controls that lined the metal walls.  The air down there was cold and slightly stale, as if no one had been down there in a long time…which was very possible, since the only ones with any reason to be there before her had been the technicians who’d periodically checked on the equipment there.  No one else had had the authorisation to be down in this control room.

Not until Martha, of course.

She really didn’t want to be there.  She’d have preferred to be at home, with her fiancé and her family, letting others get on with saving the world.

However, that wasn’t her.  It hadn’t been her in a very long time now, ever since she’d met the Doctor.  Martha had to be out doing things, and not hanging about, waiting for things to happen.  The Doctor had ruined her for a normal life, and yet she couldn’t be upset about it. 

And so, there she was, taking her place in the uncomfortable chair in front of the main control console, inputting her authorisation code into the system, waiting for anyone else to answer and yet hoping no one would.

She didn’t have to for long.

There were five stations, interspersed all over the world.  Each had their own dedicated communications system; five monitors before her, each one of them blank…until the one marked “China” flickered to life, revealing a young woman in a UNIT beret, terror reflected in her dark eyes even through the poor visuals. 

 _“Osterhagen Station One,”_ she spoke with a faint accent, _“this is Station Five.  Are you receiving me?”_

Martha had hoped that no one else had made it to the other stations.  It would have been so much simpler to pull off her bluff with the Daleks if she didn’t have to deal with anyone else as well.  She could only hope they wouldn’t get the requisite number needed to activate the program…

“I’m reading you, Station Five,” she answered, glad that her own voice wasn’t giving away her own fear.  “We’re just waiting to see if anyone comes online.”

And then, as if summoned by her comment, another screen activated, this one marked “Liberia”.

The man on the other end of the connection didn’t look at all happy to be there; not that Martha could blame him, since she didn’t want to be there, either.  _“This is Osterhagen Station Four.”_ His voice was gruff, and Martha thought he’d have been bolting if he wasn’t under orders to be there.

“Then we have three, and that’s all we need.”  Yes, it would have been easier to deal with this on her own, but at least no other stations had come online.  That meant they couldn’t do a thing without her participation. 

She hadn’t put her own version of the key into its slot yet.  Martha hoped this wasn’t going to be necessary, and that she would be able to pull this off without destroying the planet.

She thought about Toshiko and the other Great Dragon Friends who’d been affected by the Earth being moved.

She thought of her Dragon, also affected, but not to the same extent.  Her mind turned to his mating with Jack, a little over a month ago, and how happy they’d all been when the two had finally been able to commit their eternity to each other.

And then her mind went to Tom.  Her rock, the one who believed in her whole-heartedly, who trusted her to save the planet again even though things looked far too bleak.  He was with her family, who had survived the Earth ending once before, and who had gotten closer because of it.  They were all counting on her to pull this off, this miracle she was contemplating.

It was a heavy burden to bear, one that she would never get used to.  It hit her hard, that she was on her own, without her Dragon to watch her back, and to support her through what she knew she had to do. That didn’t seem right, and it was all she could do not to pull her phone from her pocket and call the Hub, wanting to speak to her best friend one more time before she took this awful step

 _“So,”_ the young Chinese woman said, her voice cracking, _“do we do it?”_

Martha wanted to say no, they weren’t.  That UNIT had been wrong to even contemplate committing such a terrible act.  To condemn the entirety of the human race – and the other races that called Earth their home – was wrong on so many levels it made her lose her breath and her heart throb painfully in her chest.  Whoever had come up with this plan had been truly mad.

She was so going to sic Jack on them when this was all done.

If she was still alive at the end of it to do so.

No, she couldn’t think that.  Too many people were counting on her, and she had to succeed.

But she wasn’t about to obey the orders she was given.

Both of the UNIT soldiers were looking at her through their screens, and Martha felt the weight of their regard just as surely as if they were in the same room with her.  She sat up straighter in her chair, ready to take command, needing them to believe she was really going to do what she’d been told to do by her superior officer who, chances were, was dead and wouldn’t have to deal with the fallout.

 _Bastard,_ she couldn’t help but think, even though she’d been taught not to speak ill of the dead. 

General Sanchez had been a bit of a jerk, but he hadn’t been a bad man.  Still, Martha once again found herself wishing that Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart was still in charge, because even though she’d never met him she just knew he’d never have condoned something so terrible as the Osterhagen Project.

 _“I do not want to be known for this,”_ the man snarled.  _“This is wrong.”_

 _“We need to follow our orders,”_ the woman answered, not sounding so certain of that at all.

Maybe Martha did stand a chance after all.

“Listen,” she began, “I think we all know this is wrong.  I want to do something about it, if you’ll go along with it.”

She had both of their attentions, she could tell.  At that point they were most likely willing to do anything but go along with the orders they’d been given, and Martha wanted them to have the opportunity to still do what their commanding officers had told them to, instead of the course Martha wanted them to follow.

There was silence on both screens.  Martha mentally crossed her fingers that they’d come to the right decision.  “There won’t be any repercussions if you decide to do what I’m asking.”

 _“How can you guarantee that?”_ the man wanted to grasp at the straw she was offering so badly.

Martha suddenly felt very confident of what she was about to say.  “I’m sure you’ve both been briefed on the Doctor?”

 _“Is he here?”_ the woman gasped, and Martha could see the hope blooming in her eyes.

“He is,” Martha confirmed.  “And right now he’s working to save us all.  I think we can help him.”

 _“How?”_ the man asked. 

“I think we can bluff the Daleks into thinking we’re really going to detonate,” Martha answered.  “They obviously want all twenty-seven planets for some reason, and if they think they’re gonna lose one…”

Silence once again greeted her words.  Martha found herself chewing the inside of her cheek in sheer nervousness.  If either of them chose not to go with her plan, they still wouldn’t be able to activate without the requisite three stations, but they could certainly make the bluff harder to sell.  And if they did manage to do what she was suggesting, and the world came through this relatively intact, then she was in for a court-martial. 

Well, maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

Martha had decided to stay with UNIT after the troubled start she’d had with the organisation, despite Ianto’s offer to step in.  And it had gotten easier, even though she’d been transferred to New York for Project Indigo when it meant leaving her entire family behind. 

She still had no idea why the brass had decided to read her in on the Osterhagen Project, knowing her background as they did.  Her history with the Doctor alone should have negated their confidence in her to carry out her orders.  But then Colonel Mace had always claimed to see something in her, something that Martha herself hadn’t been aware of, and he’d said he trusted her with the information on the place and the codes needed to activate the weapon. 

That trust had been passed along to General Sanchez.  The man might have been annoying and in a couple of ways condescending, but Sanchez _had_ trusted her as well.  He’d given her the key as he’d sent her on her way, to find the Doctor and try to stop things from going too far.

But it had all started with Colonel Mace, who should have realised that she would never even consider that destroying the world was a good idea, when she’d spent a year of her life walking it in order to save it.

And then it hit her, as she was sitting in that too-hard chair, waiting for her counterparts from different countries make up their minds.

 

 


	33. Chapter 33

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second chapter. :)

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_Osterhagen Station One_ **

**_Nuremberg, Germany_ **

****

Mace had figured it out.  He’d told her about the Osterhagen Key simply because he’d _known_ she’d never use it.  He must have disagreed with it as well, and this was the only way he could find to keep it from happening, by planting a cuckoo in the project who would object to its use.  And, if she was ever given the order, she’d do her damnedest to keep it from happening.

If what she was thinking was true, then Martha was going to owe him the biggest apology _ever_.  And maybe even a hug. 

“Look,” she said into the silence, “if either of you wanted to walk away right now, you have my word I’d never tell anyone that you left your posts.  Blame it on the Daleks preventing you from doing your duty.  No one need ever know about it.  But you both must know that using the Osterhagen Keys isn’t the way to save the planet.  Give the Doctor a chance to work.  Go home to your families.  Let me handle things.”

 _“Is it true that they call you the Nightingale?”_ the woman asked, her voice now full of hope.  _“That you saved the world once before?”_

“You know about that?” Martha was surprised; that wasn’t common knowledge.  In fact, it was classified so high not even the keyholders should have been privy to it.

 _“My brother was a prisoner of the Master_ ,” she confessed.  _“He remembered it, and he told me.”_

 _“You saved the world?”_ the man in Liberia enquired, his own words warmer than they had been.  _“Then why did they ask you to help destroy it?”_

Martha thought she now had the answer to that, but she kept it to herself.  She shrugged, confident it would register through the video connection.  “And I want to save the world again.  I’ll erase the logs of everything that’s happened, if you want to leave.  I still have a job to do, and I’m going to do it, but neither of you have to be here for it.”

Not saying anything, the man saluted her.  Then he got up, reaching over his console…and the screen he’d been on was turned off, going back to black.

Martha let out a breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding.

 _“I’m staying,”_ the Chinese woman said warmly, _“but only to witness.  I want to be able to tell my brother that I was there when the Nightingale saved the world again.”_

Martha grinned around the blush that she felt rising in her cheeks.  “Now, don’t be surprised at anything you see,” she advised.  “I don’t know what the Daleks have planned, and they could come after me once I give them my ultimatum.  And if anyone else logs into the system, don’t let them activate the bombs.”

_“I won’t. And my name is Anna.”_

“It’s nice to meet you, Anna.  Maybe, after all this is over, we could talk about something that doesn’t have to do with the world ending.”

Anna laughed.  _“I would like that, Nightingale.”_

When she’d chosen this course of action, Martha hadn’t known that she’d be meeting a potential friend.  “Alright, I’m gonna try to contact the Daleks.  Keep your fingers crossed that this works…”

Martha bent over her console, bringing up the outside communications network.  When this place had been built, UNIT had thought to use the defunct Archangel Network, but they hadn’t been able to hack into the system despite having the plans to it, taken from the Master’s own files.  They’d eventually settled on their own network, and Martha was glad that the Daleks had also snagged the majority of the Earth’s satellites when they also stole the entire planet.

When she thought she had the correct settings, Martha called, “This is Doctor Martha Jones, representing the Unified Intelligence Taskforce on behalf of the human race.”

The larger middle screen, the one dedicated to confidential UNIT communications, flared to life.  On it, Martha could see a large chamber, bare except for a large piece of equipment near the centre of the room.  On it, she could make out Davros and several Daleks…

And the Doctor.

He was standing there, his gaze through the link dark and yet puzzled.  Beside him was a blonde woman, wearing a mauve jacket and jeans, also interested in Martha’s presence in the proceedings. Martha felt as if she should know her, even though she was positive she’d never met the woman before in her life.

Martha felt that old familiar adrenaline spike as she faced down the creator of the Dalek race. 

She held up her copy of the key, making certain it was visible over the connection.  “I have the Osterhagen Key.  Leave this planet and its people alone, or I won’t hesitate to use it.”  She hoped she sounded threatening enough, once again wishing that Dragon was there.  He could pull off threatening with one wing tied behind his back.

The Doctor was frowning.  _“Osterhagen what?”_ he demanded.  Martha could tell he wasn’t exactly glad to see her, and she really couldn’t blame him.  What she was about to do was against what the Doctor stood for, and she couldn’t even give him the slightest hint that it was just a bluff.

“The Osterhagen Key,” she repeated.  “There’s a chain of twenty-five nuclear warheads placed in strategic positions beneath the Earth’s crust.  If I use this key, they detonate and the Earth gets ripped apart.”

She could see the anger and horror on the Time Lord’s face.  _“What?”_ he exclaimed.  _“Who invented that?”_ Then he shrugged pointedly.  _“Well, someone called Osterhagen, I suppose.”_ And then his attention was right back on Martha, and she found herself on the receiving end of the Oncoming Storm.  _“Martha, are you insane?”_

Not anymore she wasn’t.  She felt more in control in that moment than she had ever since all of this began.  “The Osterhagen Key is to be used if the suffering of the human race is so great, so without hope, that this becomes the final option.”

It bothered her that there were people out there who really believed that.  That destruction was a better way to go out than fighting to the last.  Thank god she wasn’t like that.

 _“That’s never an option,”_ the Doctor scoffed.

“Don’t argue with me, Doctor,” Martha growled, doing her best to impersonate her favourite dragon.  “Because it’s more than that.”  She looked at Davros, sitting in that weird chair of his, watching the screen avidly.  “I reckon the Daleks need these twenty-seven planets for something.  But what if it becomes twenty-six?  What happens then?  Daleks?  Would you risk it?”

 _“She’s good,”_ the blonde woman commented, a small smirk on her face even though Martha could tell she was just upset about the ultimatum as the Doctor was.

“Who’s that?” she couldn’t help but ask.  This stranger was with the Doctor, and Martha needed to know what she was dealing with if this was going to succeed.

_“I’m Rose Tyler.”_

Martha’s jaw dropped in astonishment.  _That_ was why she thought she should know her…she’d heard enough about Rose Tyler in her time with the Doctor, had tried to compete with Rose’s memory, that she’d felt as if she’d become acquainted with the former companion through some sort of alien form of osmosis.  “My god…he found you.”

 _“Well,”_ Rose said, _“it was more like_ I _found_ him.”

There really wasn’t anything Martha could say to that.

 _“There is a second transmission,”_ one of the Daleks said, its voice grating even over the speaker.  _“It is internal.”_

 _“Put it through,”_ Davros requested, sounding almost pleased.

The screen in front of Martha split down the middle, revealing two people she didn’t know, one she’d only seen over the sub-wave…and the last, one of the men she considered her brother and fellow member of the End of the World Club.

_“Captain Jack Harkness, calling all Dalek boys and girls…”_

 

 


	34. Chapter 34

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_The Dalek Crucible_ **

****

Jack managed to revive quietly, for one of the very few times in his life. 

Maybe his body had known that he was still surrounded by Daleks, or if it was sheer good fortune…or even a blessing from the Great Dragons, even though they were MIA.  But he was grateful as he gave a wink to the Doctor, who was escorting a visibly distressed Rose out of the room, under the watchful guns of the Daleks.

He’d never forgotten how badly being exterminated hurt.  Jack suspected he would always remember his first death with perfect clarity.  It was the reason that, making his stand against that red Dalek and knowing he was going to die had very nearly freaked him out.

One of the more recurring nightmares he still had had to do with the Gamestation and the Daleks.  Not the Master, although those had been violent.  No, it was that first death, realising he was going to die for the Doctor and actually being fine with it for the most part, and then waking up from all that pain and trauma and feeling as if the world had been yanked out from under him.

He’d let all that rage and fear leak out into his words and actions.  Jack knew he’d sold it perfectly, and the Dalek had reacted just as he’d known it would.  Still, being prepared for extermination wasn’t the same as actually being exterminated, and he would be sore for days. 

If he was at home, he would have sought the comfort of his mate.  But Jack wasn’t there; he was lying flat on his stomach, pretending to be dead, because he needed to be free in order to get to the Doctor and get them all out of this mess.

It was difficult not to react as the Daleks moved him.  They didn’t actually touch him, using tractor fields to shift his body out of the room and to wherever they were taking him.  Jack was willing to bet it was some sort of incinerator, because they weren’t going to do the decent thing and bury him, and Daleks didn’t have medical facilities.  Of course, they could always eject him out into space, but there were ways to survive for a short period of time, perhaps enough to get himself back inside.

As he let himself be dragged along, Jack’s mind tried to deal with the idea that the TARDIS was gone.  She’d managed to speak to him, in those last moments, when he’d touched her as he listened to Donna and Clint try to get out.  She had tried to reassure him that things would be fine, that she’d needed him to trust her to do what needed to be done, but that was hard to accept now that he’d witnessed her dumped into the core of the Dalek space station.

He was going to have to tell Phil Coulson that his lover was dead. 

It was possibly the worst thing he could think of having to do.  Telling a loved one that their family member was dead, and that you couldn’t stop it.  And what made it worse was that this was Agent Coulson, one of the deadliest people on the planet.  Jack might have often joked about Coulson coming after him and killing him for good, but he was well aware of just what the SHIELD agent was capable of.

This had been while they’d been trying to save the world.  Clint had died a hero as far as Jack was concerned.  The professional in Coulson would understand that and accept it; the lover, the man who loved Clint, would be devastated.

As would Ianto, who had agreed to Clint coming along. 

Jack would miss the agent.  In the short time Clint had been subbing at Torchwood, Jack had seen what Ianto had in the man, back when they’d met in Geneva.  Clint Barton was more than just a good aim; he was a good man, and he fit into the team seamlessly.  Jack would have given anything to get him into Torchwood, but he’d known that, after they got Owen back, Clint would go back to SHIELD.  He hadn’t even really been working for them in an official capacity, although Jack was certain that Nick Fury had known exactly what his asset had been up to when Clint had requested vacation time. 

Of course, after everything that had occurred, they would have had that confirmed.

But now, Jack was going to have to go to them and tell them what had happened.  It was the cost of being the leader, the Director of Torchwood, and he would carry it out with pride in that Clint had tried to do his duty to the planet.

And then, he would join Ianto in singing the Song of Mourning for him.

He worried about his mate.  The last time he’d seen Ianto, the dragon had been obviously ill from the damage being done to the planet.  He and Toshiko both.  And Alice, his own daughter.  Kathy and Rhiannon as well.  They were all dear to him, in different ways, and they’d all been hurt by the Earth being moved. 

He was unbelievably angry.  It was all he could do not to wrestle himself away from the Daleks to take them all on, a Vow of Vengeance against those who hurt his family, and his mate, and fulfil the promise he’d made at their mating.

It would only get him exterminated again, and would give away his immortality.  Jack knew that Ianto wouldn’t want him to do that.

Still, it didn’t stop him from swearing to himself that he’d do whatever he could to get his vengeance against his family’s enemies.

Then there was Donna Noble.

While Jack hadn’t known her more than a few minutes, he’d been impressed by her.  She was just what the Doctor needed to rein in his more impulsive tendencies.  He wondered how the Year would have turned out if Donna had been there…

But, no.  He wouldn’t have traded Martha for anything.  She was like a sister to him.  He could only hope that she’d stayed with her family, although knowing her like he did Jack was certain she was out doing whatever she could to help.

Maybe whatever it was had to do with that Osterhagen Key.  He’d have to find out just what that was once things were back to normal, because he really hated it when UNIT kept things from him.

With his eyes closed, Jack couldn’t tell where they were going exactly, but he could hear the roar of something getting closer.  He wanted to smile; incinerator it was, possibly one that fed into the core of the space station.  All he needed to do was to avoid falling into the zed-neutrino core, and then he could get out and see what he could do to commit the worst acts of sabotage possible, as well as find the Doctor and stop the Daleks for good.

“Open the incinerator,” one of the Daleks lugging his lifeless body around ordered. 

There was a grinding noise, and then Jack was unceremoniously dumped onto something. 

“Commence disposal,” the Dalek – or it might have a different one, Jack couldn’t tell – intoned.  “Incinerate.”

Jack didn’t know what sounded worse: exterminate, or incinerate.  Both were equally horrid.

Whatever Jack was laying on moved, and there was a sudden clang as something slammed shut.  He snapped his eyes open, and found himself in a dark space, far too hot for his liking and filled with smoke.

He needed to get out of there ASAP.

The tray he was on moved again, proceeding to dump him into the actual incinerator.  Jack had to leap out of the weird little tub he’d been deposited in, to land onto a small ledge just next to what was obviously a hatch in the wall.

A couple of quick taps on his Vortex Manipulator had the hatch sliding open, and Jack rolled out into the blessedly cooler corridor.  He coughed to clear the smoke from his lungs, and then stood, hoping there weren’t any Daleks waiting for him.

The corridor was empty.

Jack needed to move.  He headed toward the hallway, wrist strap out and taking scans of the surrounding area.  If he could find any life signs, chances were he’d find the Doctor and Rose.

He still couldn’t believe that Rose was there. 

She’d had something built that would have gotten her through the dimensional walls if they hadn’t come down because of whatever the Daleks were doing.  He couldn’t help to think of just how extremely dangerous that would have been.  Would it have done damage to the dimensions?  Or done something worse?  He was grateful that she hadn’t had a chance to even try it. 

It made Jack think of that time when his Ianto had been exchanged by an other-dimensional doppelganger who’d somehow been the ‘child’ of the Doctor’s TARDIS.  That had been a fluke; a device that had been created to do what it had done, and they’d been able to get them changed back.  He had to wonder if that had been a sign of things to come?  Had the dimensional walls been cracking even then?  Could this have been prevented that much earlier if they’d only thought it through?

No, it wouldn’t have stopped anything, of that Jack was certain.  There had been no way of even guessing that something was going on, let alone preventing it.  It had taken the Daleks stealing the Earth to bring it to their attention.

And now they had to fix it.

A quick pass with his Manipulator didn’t show anything nearby.  He needed to get out of sight, and a convenient maintenance tunnel, access hatch apparent on the metal wall, was just the ticket.

He thought about using the teleport, but really, he had no idea where to even go, or if it would work properly.  Yes, he’d been able to get himself and Clint to the TARDIS, but the wrist strap had been a last resort, not something he would have tried if he’d had the chance.  The tunnel would be his best bet to keep out of the way of any Dalek patrols that had to be all over the Crucible.  A quick command input into his wrist strap had the hatch popping open, and Jack slid inside, closing it behind him.

The narrow tunnel was pitch black, but luckily Jack had a small pen torch with him.  He pulled it from his pocket and thumbed it on, revealing a space that looked barely wide enough for a Dalek to navigate.  Cables, wires, and conduits ran the length of it, vanishing into the darkness beyond the circle of light provided by the torch.  Hoping that there weren’t any sensors or cameras or anything to signal his presence, Jack began to move forward, being careful not to bump against anything.

Jack crept forward, deeper and deeper into the Crucible, the sounds of the space station quiet about him.  It would have been soothing; he’d spent a lot of his time before becoming immortal on such stations.  But those memories were fading, yet another victim to his immortality.  Jack sometimes wondered why he was even still sane, after so many years. 

But now he had Ianto, and the dragon was as long-lived as he was.  Ianto had been born immortal, and was therefore better equipped to deal with it than a normal human being.  Ianto would be by his side, and he’d help Jack recall what he’d need to.  They’d support each other when it was necessary.

His Vortex Manipulator beeped at him.  Jack stopped in his tracks, for a split second wondering if someone was trying to contact him, before he realised it was the human life force scan he’d set to run on its own.

Jack flipped up the flap on the wrist strap.  In the glow of the torch he could make out that several life forms had just shown up, and if he was any judge it was about a mile forward and then up.  He’d have to find a juncture and get to where the signal was quickly.  There was no telling how much time he had.

The immortal broke into a jog, dodging conduits and fibre optic wire, hoping the life forms would stay where they were long enough for him to get there.

 

 


	35. Chapter 35

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_The Dalek Crucible_ **

 

Jack was slightly out of breath by the time he got to where the Vortex Manipulator had led him.

Pocketing his torch, Jack used the same unlocking command in order to get the access hatch open.  He was out of the confined space in a heartbeat, tired of being in too small an area.  While he hadn’t really become claustrophobic during his time buried under Cardiff, it had still given him a dislike of being stuck in spaces smaller than a closet.

To his surprise, he was met by three familiar people.

He’d never met Jackie Tyler, but she looked enough like Rose, plus he’d seen photos of her, so it was obvious who she was.  She was wearing a long blue coat, her blonde hair pulled back from a handsome face, eyes sharp in her face as she looked his way. 

Sarah Jane Smith was also someone he hadn’t actually met in person, but he’d seen her on the sub-wave, and had been keeping an eye on her for years; as a former companion, even though he was on the outs from the Doctor, he’d felt a responsibility toward those who’s travelled with the Time Lord and had left him.  What she was currently doing with three children beside her was truly impressive, and he hoped that, one day, they’d be of some help to each other.  He greatly respected her for her intelligence, bravery, and…well, let’s face it, she was very attractive.

The third member of their group though…now him Jack remembered very well indeed.

“Just my luck,” he snarked, flipping his wrist strap closed with a flourish, “I climb through two miles of access shafts, chasing life signs on this thing, and who do I find?” he smirked.  “Mickey Mouse!”

Both Jackie and Sarah Jane seemed surprised by Jack’s comments, while the aforementioned Mickey simply snorted.  “You can talk, Captain Cheesecake.”

They both began laughing at the same time.  Jack stepped forward, arms out, embracing Mickey happily.  As much as he might tease the younger man, Jack had genuinely liked him when they’d travelled together with the Doctor. 

“It’s good to see you!” He exclaimed.  Then, he suddenly tightened his grip on Mickey, pulled him in even tighter.  “And that’s Beefcake.”

Mickey rolled his eyes.  “And that’s enough hugging.”

Jack let him go, knowing that despite that comment that Mickey, too, was glad to see him.  Jack had missed him, and remembered the Doctor mentioning that he’d been in that other dimension with Rose, and Jackie. 

So, they’d all come over.  Jack wasn’t overly surprised, but he couldn’t help the slight shiver at the sheer dangerousness of the attempt.

Then he turned to Jackie, holding out a hand.  “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Ms Tyler.”

When she went to shake it, he turned it over and raised it to his lips, kissing the back gallantly.  “Captain Jack Harkness. I travelled with Rose and Mickey.”

Jackie was smiling, looking very pleased at his greeting.  “I’ve heard a lot about you, Captain.”

“All of it bad, I’m sure.”

She laughed at that, but didn’t deny it.

Finally, he saluted Sarah Jane.  She deserved it, after everything she’d done for the Earth.  “We meet at last, Ms Smith,” he said warmly, his hand snapping down sharply. 

“Captain Harkness,” she returned, her own smile a touch sad. 

He glanced at all three of them.  “What happened?” he asked, feeling that something beyond an invasion by Daleks was going on.

As Mickey explained what they’d seen, Jack grew grimmer.  So, the Daleks had a weapon that disintegrated people?  He’d heard of such a thing; he’d even once been sentenced to disintegration, but he’d managed to escape the punishment by seducing his jailers, which had led to a good time for everyone involved besides letting him escape certain death.  This, though, sounded like something beyond that, and Jack knew they couldn’t let the Daleks get away with what they were planning.

“We need to stop them,” he growled, once Mickey has finished recounting what they’d witnessed.

“There’s something we can do,” Sarah Jane said hesitatingly.  She was wringing her hands as she went on. “You’ve got to understand!  I have a son down there on Earth.  He’s only fourteen, and I’d do anything to save him.”

Jack nodded.  “I have family down there as well, including a daughter, grandson, and a man I love very much.  I’d do anything to protect them.”

“You’ve got a grandson?” Mickey asked incredulously.  “Fuck, you’ve aged well.”

“You have no idea.”  Jack didn’t want to get into his inability to stay dead at the moment. 

“I brought this with me.”  Sarah Jane reached into the pocket of her jacket, bringing out a pendant that seemed to glow with an almost unnatural light.

Jack reached out and took the pendant gingerly by the chain, looking into the gemstone within the metallic setting.  The light within pulsed once, and then again.  He couldn’t take his eye off it, having trouble swallowing against the sudden dryness in his throat.

“It was given to me,” she went on, “by a Verron soothsayer.”

That made sense.  Jack had heard things about the Verron; they were powerful engineers and scientists, highly religious, who often used the higher maths as weapons.  For one to have given this to Sarah Jane, she must have done them a great service indeed.

“He told me that this was for the End of Days.”

It sounded as if this particular Verron had gone _really_ deep into religion if he was having visions about Armageddon.  “It’s a warp star,” he whispered incredulously.  He’d known they’d existed, but he’d never held one before.  He felt by humbled and in the most incredible danger ever.  Hell, this thing might have actually been able to kill him for good.

“Going to tell us what a warp star is?” Mickey demanded.

Jack tore his gaze away from the warp star.  Mickey’s eyes were narrowed and he was staring at Jack, while Jackie simply looked curious.

“It’s a warp-fold conjugation trapped in a carbonised shell.”  When Mickey didn’t look any wiser, Jack clarified, “It’s an explosion, Mickey.  An explosion waiting to happen.”

He’d once seen one in action, during a skirmish on an outlying world during one of the many battles he’d been in before joining the Time Agency.  Half a large moon had been blasted away, leaving a trail of debris that had formed a ring about its home planet.  So much destruction had caused the rest of the moon to change its orbit as well, which had led to catastrophic damage to the populated world it had once circled.

“A very powerful explosion,” Sarah Jane added.

Now, that impressed Mickey.  “So, what are we gonna do with it?”

A smirk graced Jack’s features.  “I happened to pass the computer mainframe on my way here.  What do you say we go and make some demands?”

That got him nods all around.

 

 


	36. Chapter 36

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_The Dalek Crucible_ **

****

Jack led them back into the access tunnel he’d emerged from, once again using his penlight to guide the way.  The mainframe hadn’t been all that far away, and it would take some time to wire the warp star into it, to cause the maximum amount of damage to the Daleks.  He could feel the warp star, now safe in his pocket, the warmth of it rivalling that of his dragon. 

He really did wonder if the power in his pocket would have been enough to end him forever.  He really didn’t want to use it, but he would if he had to, if it meant his family would have been protected.  He thought of Ianto, down on Earth in the Hub, waiting for him to return.  Of Alice, incapacitated by the moving of the Earth.  Steven, still in school, wondering where his family was and when they would be coming to get him. 

Of his team, who needed him to be their leader, to make the difficult decisions.  And this was one of the most difficult ones he’d ever have to make.

“When I was travelling with the Doctor,” Sarah Jane’s soft voice echoed around the enclosed space, “the Doctor had a chance to end the Daleks before they’d even really began.”

“He didn’t do it?” Jackie asked incredulously.

“He felt like, although the Daleks were a conquering race, even they were a strange force for good,” Sarah Jane answered.  “Entire races are brought together because of the threat of the Daleks.”

“And how many innocents died because of that reasoning?” Mickey argued.

Jack might not have died, but he certainly wouldn’t exist as he was today, if the Daleks hadn’t invaded the Gamestation, sometime far in the future and yet a long time ago in the past.  He wouldn’t have become immortal…and he would never have met Ianto. 

That was a scary thought.

To his mind, everything that had led up to his mating with his dragon had been worth it, even if he still had nightmares about it.

He led them to a junction he recognised.  “The mainframe is through here.”  He indicated another access hatch.  Once again using his Vortex Manipulator, he had it open in no time, carefully stepping through first just in case there were Daleks on the other side.  Yes, he ran the risk of being exterminated once more, and while the pain of it was terrible it was still better that he die than someone else.

Luckily for them, the room beyond was empty.

It looked like any basic computer core, with banks of equipment; only they were in odd shapes and there wasn’t a single keyboard to be seen, only sockets for the Dalek suction arms.  Jack didn’t need one, though, to find the panel he needed.

“Keep both an ear and eye out,” he asked his companions.  “We don’t want the Daleks find our bit of sabotage before it’s ready.”

With Mickey’s help, he got the panel removed from its housing, revealing the fine processors that lined the interior of the machine.  He had always wondered who the Daleks enslaved to build their equipment, because they’d given up fine motor skills when they’d retreated to their travel armour.  Had some poor, conquered race been forced to construct the Crucible?  Perhaps one that had called one of the worlds that surrounded them home?

Jack supposed they’d never really know. 

Once he had several wires traced and exposed, he used his pocket knife to cut away the insulation.  Connecting the warp star would be fairly simple; he just needed to twist the ends of the wires around its casing. Once that was done, it would be fairly simple to smash the shell and destroy everything in this room.

It would also most likely be the entire Crucible as well, knowing first-hand just what a warp star could do. 

This didn’t solve the problem of getting all the planets back to where they belonged.  But Jack was just hoping to negotiate with the Daleks.  Get them to send the planets back in exchange for not blowing up the Crucible.

That he still intended to do so was something he’d keep to himself for the time being.

“There’s what looks like a communications panel over here,” Sarah Jane murmured. 

Jack looked up from his work, and saw the older woman standing next to a screen on the wall, next to another set of controls.  Jack favoured her with a big smile as he completed wiring the warp star into place.  “Let’s ring up the head Dalek and give him our demands.”

Mickey did the honours, looking over the panel and working out just how to use it.  There wasn’t any sort of button on it, only the socket for the Dalek arm, but somehow he managed to get it turned on using a pocket knife and a bit of elbow grease.

Jack hoped they made a united front as the screen activated.

Before he could even get a word out, the picture on the screen split, revealing two different rooms.  The first resembled more of a closet than anything else, only one that was a bit more high-tech than the one Ianto kept his suits in.  Seated in a chair in that room was Martha, and Jack internally rejoiced seeing her well, even though he was really confused by her surroundings.  It must have had something to do with this mysterious Osterhagen Key, and a shiver went down his spine even though he had no real idea just what it was for. 

The other side of the monitor showed a large chamber, bare except for a large panel that was obviously some sort of control suite.  There were a couple of Daleks, as well as the being known as Davros.  Even though they were separated by walls and decks, there was something about him, a sense of the fanatic, that had Jack afraid that his bluff wasn’t going to work.

Also in the room was the Doctor and Rose. 

He was glad they were both still alive.  Although he’d been happy to give his life for them, it would have been in vain if they’d been murdered later.  Jack was never averse to sacrificing himself, even though it drove Ianto spare.

It did the rest of his team as well, but Ianto was the worst of the lot.  Jack knew it was because Ianto loved him, and hated seeing him hurt, but there were times when giving his life was the best alternative.  Plus, he always came back. 

“Captain Jack Harkness,” he introduced himself jauntily, “calling all Dalek boys and girls!”

The look on Rose’s face confirmed that she had no idea that Jack was now immortal.  He wasn’t sure how he felt about that, to be honest.

 _“He’s still alive!”_ her gasp was clearly audible over the speaker, full of joy and confusion in equal measure.  Then she frowned, her face going a bit pale.  _“Oh my god, is that my Mum?”_

 _“And Mickey.”_  The Doctor was equally confused, but it wasn’t over Jack’s continued survival.  His own face went hard as he regarded Jack.  _“Captain, what are you up to?”_

Yeah, there was that now-familiar disapproval.  And it was only going to get worse, after this, Jack just knew it.  “I have a warp star wired into the mainframe,” he answered boldly, finally accepting the fact that he was no longer worried about disappointing the Time Lord with his actions.  “I break this shell, and the entire Crucible goes up.”  Well, he thought it would.  The warp star certainly was powerful enough for that.

 _“You can’t!”_ the Doctor shouted.  And there it was, the disappointment Jack had been expecting.  It no longer made Jack’s heart hurt; he’d made his decision, standing with Ianto over the actions against the Master, and it was time Jack owned up to it.  _“Where did you get a warp star anyway?”_

For a split second, Jack thought he’d have to lie and say he’d had it with him.  He certainly wouldn’t have blamed Sarah Jane for not taking the credit for having it; she had far more to lose than Jack did, where the Doctor’s approval came into things. 

And yet, she stepped forward and around Jack, accepting the responsibility and firmly allying herself with Jack, and not with the Time Lord.  He wanted to hug her for it, but he had to maintain his threatening attitude.  He didn’t dare show any sort of emotion or weakness – and to the Daleks, they were one and the same – in front of the aliens he was trying to bluff.

“From me,” she piped up.  Sarah Jane was practically vibrating in rage over the situation, and he couldn’t help but compare her to a mama bear protecting her cub.  “We had no choice.  We saw what happened to the Daleks’ prisoners.” 

From the expression on the Doctor’s face, he knew exactly what Sarah Jane was talking about.  Jack hadn’t seen it first-hand, but from the description he’d been given it had been a hideous way for those poor people to die.

And yet, still, the Doctor couldn’t see that, sometimes, desperate measures needed to be taken. Even if those desperate measures were a bluff that the fate of the universe rested on.

No, it didn’t make him nervous _at_ _all_.

Actually, he’d have been shitting his trousers at this point if it weren’t so damned _important_.

Davros was staring at Sarah Jane as if he was seeing a ghost.  Of course…she’d been there, in the beginning, travelling with a version of the Doctor that Jack would never be able to meet.

“You remember me?” Sarah Jane challenged the monster on the monitor.

 _“You were there,”_ Davros answered, sounding almost reverent.  _“After all those years…”_

“It’s been quite a while.” 

Jack was astonished by her sudden calm at Davros acknowledging her.  Oh, why hadn’t he ever tried to hire her for Torchwood?  She would have been magnificent!

 _“Oh, this is too good,”_ Davros was cackling.  _“This was meant to be…you, here, at the end of all things, just as you were in the beginning.  If I believed in omens, this would be a good one indeed!”_

“Let the Doctor go,” Jack growled.  “Send the planets back to where they belong.  I won’t hesitate to use this.”

Well, he would. 

He wanted this bluff to work.  He _needed_ it to work, because he didn’t want all of these planets trapped wherever the hell they were.  He had no idea if the equilibrium that kept them viable would remain intact if the Crucible was destroyed.

All of those innocent people down on Earth, and whoever remained on the other twenty-six planets.  They would be at risk no matter how this turned out, until their worlds were back where they belonged. 

Still, he had no idea just what the Daleks’ weapon would do.  If it meant the end of the universe, then he’d have to make the hard decision…these worlds for the rest of creation.

It wasn’t an easy thought.  But then, it was why he was the Director of the Torchwood Institute.  He had to make the impossible decisions that would cost lives if it came down to it.  He’d done it before, and he was positive he’d do it many times in the future, even though it made him sick to his stomach each and every time.

His thoughts went to his family…to his mate.  He might never see Ianto ever again, when he’d promised his eternity to his dragon.

They might not get that. 

Goddess, he needed this bluff to work, more than anything he needed this to _work_.

“Don’t imagine I won’t,” he threatened.  Because he would.  He’d hate himself for the rest of his unnaturally long life, but he would if it meant the fate of untold billions.

Davros was laughing, a harsh, nightmare inducing sound that sent chills through Jack.  He knew, in that moment, that this wasn’t going to work.  Davros wasn’t going to fall to the bluff, and that he was going to have to crack open the warp star and wipe everything out. 

His heart broke.  He said a mental apology to his mate, and to his family, and he hoped that he’d one ay see them again.

 _“Enough,”_ Davros said.  _“Engage transmat.”_

Jack didn’t even have time to react before he felt the tell-tale sensation of teleport.

The warp star dropped to the deck.

 

 


	37. Chapter 37

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_The Dalek Crucible_ **

****

Rose listened as Martha explained about the bombs that had been planted around the Earth.

She couldn’t help but be impressed even as she felt like this was not the smartest thing to do.

She wasn’t as horrified as the Doctor about it, though.  Which was understandable; the Doctor was, at heart, a pacifist, and destroying an entire planet just because things got so bad there didn’t seem to be any hope left was just plain wrong in his opinion; to be fair, he did have personal experience on his side.  Rose could agree, especially since that was her home planet down there even though she’d been living on an alternate version of it for years now. 

At the same time, she could see the logic of taking one of the planets out of the equation.  She’d been a witness to those poor people being wiped out of existence, and if it would scupper the Daleks’ plans…

She couldn’t believe she was even considering that this was a good idea.

But then, Jack had appeared.

And he’d been alive.

Rose was understandably confused.  She’d seen the Dalek shoot Jack, and no one came back from being exterminated.  And yet, there he was, with her Mum and Mickey – who’d followed her, and she didn’t know really why they would – and with Sarah Jane Smith, a woman that Rose had genuinely liked when she’d met her, back during that Krillitane mess.

And they were threatening to blow up the Crucible with something called a warp star.

It must have been something really bad if the Doctor was scared of it.

Still, destroying the Crucible was another option.

Rose wasn’t afraid to die, if it meant giving her life for a good cause.  In her honest opinion, saving innocent lives was _the_ best cause ever.  If she had to go down with the Crucible, then it would be totally worth it.

It was certainly a better option than blowing up the Earth.

Davros though, didn’t seem to be taking any of it seriously. 

Rose frowned.  Was he so out of touch with reality – no pun intended – that he didn’t get just what was being threatened here?  This would mean the end of his plans for destroying the universe.  Rose thought the endgame for any villain was the completion of their nefarious schemes? Then why wasn’t Davros more concerned?

She found that out, in the next thirty seconds.

As she watched, everyone threatening Davros vanished from the screen in a flash of brilliant light.

Only to appear there, in the Vault.

They were dropped unceremoniously to the hard floor.  Jack was on his feet first, followed by Mickey.  They each helped the others up, and then Jack made a single move toward one of the Dalek guards, who promptly covered them with their gun.

“Don’t move!’ the Doctor ordered. “All of you, stay still.”

Jack and Mickey looked as if they wanted to argue, but they stayed where they were.  Jack had moved in front of Martha and Sarah Jane, protecting them with his body.  Mickey had done the same with her Mum, and it warmed Rose’s heart to know that Jackie had someone looking after her. 

At the same time, Rose felt sadness at the fact that she’d drifted away from her family.  Her Mum and Mickey both had tried to be there for her, when all she’d wanted was to get back here to find the Doctor again.  She hadn’t even said goodbye when she’d left.  She looked over at her Mum, and Jackie’s expression told her that she was going to get such a slap at the first opportunity. 

Rose wasn’t so sure she didn’t deserve it.

Alright, yeah…she’d give her Mum a shot, after all she’d been putting her through.

“Recall all Dalek forces,” Davros ordered.  His voice echoed over some sort of communication system, and Rose didn’t doubt that the Dalek in charge – the one the Doctor had called the Supreme Dalek – had heard and was doing exactly what Davros had ordered.

The creator of the Daleks slid his chair forward.  “Once all forces are back on the Crucible, final detonation can begin.”  He turned toward the two Daleks in the room.  “Guard them.”

“Get on your knees,” one of the Daleks intoned, its gun waving menacingly toward the others.

Jackie and Sarah Jane were the first to comply.  Martha was next, after glancing at Jack, as if to get his approval.  Rose wasn’t sure what that was all about, but she’d gotten the impression earlier, over the sub-wave, that he and Martha were close, as well as the rest of this team.

Jack knelt beside her.  His jaw was clenched, and Rose wondered if he was going to try and charge the Daleks in the room.  That scared her, that he’d throw his life away like that…but then, he’d been shot dead before, she was positive of it.  And yet, there he was, glaring up at the Daleks as if his very gaze would blow them to pieces. 

She didn’t know how he’d fooled her, but now that she thought about it the Doctor had to have known.  Just from the way he’d pulled her away, leaving Jack’s body alone…he had to have known it was some sort of trick.  Rose hadn’t any idea how he’d done it, but Jack was alive, and it seemed like he was willing to put himself between a Dalek weapon and any of them once more.

Mickey was the last to capitulate.  It was apparent that he was furious over the situation, but he also glanced in Jack’s direction as well.  Back when they’d all been on the TARDIS together, Mickey hadn’t seemed all that fond of Jack, and yet, there he was, seemingly ready to obey whatever order Jack gave.  She wondered just when their relationship had changed, and why she hadn’t been aware of it.

But then, she’d seen the changes in her ex-boyfriend over the years they’d spent on that alternate Earth.  Mickey had been a leader of the fight against the Cybermen.  He’d travelled the world, rooting out Cybermen bases until there had been none left to threaten anyone.  He’d been there for the older woman who’d looked like his grandmother, treating her like she was when Rose had known that his real grandmother had passed away years before they’d even met the Doctor. 

Distance had grown up between them.  Rose didn’t understand why he’d decided to follow after her, unless it was because her Mum had insisted.  Mickey had a life; why had he just left it?  Sure, his other world grandmother had passed away, but Mickey had become a hero.  He’d had no reason to show up.

And there he was, giving into the Daleks when he’d never once did it with the Cybermen.

“Please don’t do this,” the Doctor was pleading.  “There’s no need for all this!”

“There’s every need,” Davros gloated.  “The Daleks will finally be the supreme power in every universe!  Nothing will stop them!  All will be swept aside, to be replaced by the next great Dalek Empire!”

His voice had gotten louder and louder, until it had risen into a screech that hurt Rose’s ears. She wanted to clap her hands over them, but managed not to do it. 

“How can the Daleks be an empire if there isn’t anything to rule over?” Jack drawled.  He didn’t look at all impressed, and Rose had to admire him for it.

Yes, if it was the last thing she did, she was going to find out just what had caused the animosity between him and the Doctor, and she was going to fix it. 

Right after she asked him about how he’d survived being shot by the Daleks.

“Yeah,” Mickey added sarcastically, “it’s hard to be the supreme race when you’re the only ones around.”

The Doctor didn’t look happy about their needling, but Rose loved it.  It was most likely to get them exterminated, but then the Doctor didn’t seem to have any sort of plan to get them all out of there and to save the universe.  It wasn’t that she was holding it against him; no, Rose still believed they had some sort of chance, she just didn’t know what it was.  She may have doubted him before, but the Doctor always had some kind of plan. 

There was a very tiny voice in the back of her mind – it sounded ridiculously like her mother’s – telling her that the Doctor had given up and that the universe was about to be destroyed, and there wasn’t a thing she could do to stop it.

Rose told it to shut up.

“Your words mean nothing,” Davros purred.  “You will bear witness to the end of all things.  You will then all be exterminated, and the Doctor shall be kept alive long enough to watch.  Begin the countdown!”

Rose wanted to slam her fists against the cage holding her, but she knew it would hurt her and do nothing to set her free.  He was really going to do it!  He was going to use the twenty-seven planets to destroy the rest of creation.

“There is no one who can stop me,” Davros cackled. 

As if summoned by those very words, a very familiar sound echoed through the Vault.

A breeze kicked up, ruffling Rose’s hair even through the force field.  Jack was rising, as was Mickey, and they all turned toward the corner of the room near the control panel.

Rose’s heart lifted, even though she had no idea what it meant.

A pale blue shape began to form in the shadows, a light pulsing on the top.  The noise grew louder as the box became more substantial.

“That is impossible,” Davros hissed as the TARDIS finished materialising in front of them, sitting quiet and serene, as if it was waiting for something.

The Doctor’s mouth was hanging open, and Rose wanted to giggle at the goldfish look on his face.  She couldn’t though, because she was pretty sure the same look was on her own.

Jack was slowly rising to his feet, and for a split second Rose thought the Dalek on guard was going to kill him; the snout of its gun was aimed in his direction.  But Jack wasn’t paying attention, he was too busy watching the TARDIS fade into being as well.  His face was amazed, and the smile he was wearing was nearly blinding.

None of the others knew that the Daleks had destroyed the TARDIS. At least, it had certainly looked that way.  Did Donna know how to fly her?  Had she somehow managed to somehow get the power to move out of harms’ way?  Rose seemed to recall that the Doctor had once mentioned something like that, that kept the time machine from materialising in the middle of a dangerous situation.  Could she have done something like that, once it neared the point of no return?

Now that she thought back on it, Rose couldn’t say for certain that the TARDIS vanishing into the Daleks’ power core had been the death of her, or if she’d somehow gotten clear.  But, from the Doctor’s reaction, she would have sworn the TARDIS had been destroyed. 

Yet it hadn’t been, because there it was, fully forming in the Vault, looking a little rougher than usual but still whole.

Still, those who hadn’t watched the TARDIS plummet into the power core had to know that the time machine simply didn’t pilot herself; at least, Rose had never seen her do so.  They had to have been at least confused by her appearance. 

Davros let out a shrill cry full of anger and denial.

As she watched, once the engine noise had died down, the door creaked open, echoing in the silence of the Vault.

A man stepped out.

It was the Doctor.

But that was impossible.

 

 


	38. Chapter 38

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_Interlude – Phil Coulson_ **

**_The SHIELD Helicarrier, New York Harbour_ **

****

Phil Coulson sighed, removing his glasses from his tired eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose.

His office on the Helicarrier was windowless, so he really had no idea what was going on outside, but he’d heard enough reports to know that the Daleks were moving unhindered over the entire planet.  Nothing was stopping them.

Anyone who’d tried to fight them had died.  The UNIT airship, the _Valiant,_ lay in pieces at the bottom of the East River, one of the first targets of the invading aliens.  From what SHIELD had been able to gather it had been lost with all hands. 

They hadn’t stood a chance.

Phil suspected though that there might be some people who wouldn’t care that the _Valiant_ had gone down for good, especially after all the information they’d managed to gather about Harold Saxon and the Toclafane, bur he was certain that hadn’t included the innocent personnel on board.

He knew, without a doubt, that the death toll for this event was going to be horrific.

There wasn’t a thing SHIELD could to about it.

Yes, he’d called Stark to ask for help, but he hadn’t heard a thing back from the billionaire.  It hadn’t been very long since he’d called, so he honestly didn’t think Stark would have come up with anything so soon, but it was wishful thinking on his part that the genius would have been able to pull some sort of rabbit out of his designer hat.

But, above anything else, he was worried about Clint.

He hadn’t heard from his lover in a while now. 

Phil didn’t like the not knowing what was going on in Cardiff.  He was aware that Torchwood was on the forefront of alien intelligence; hell, he’d read the file that Second Jones had sent over detailing everything they knew about the Daleks, which had been a lot.  He’d heard the name before, in the reports from Canary Wharf, but this file had been the most comprehensive they’d ever received from the reclusive Institute. 

There had always been a slight rivalry between Torchwood and SHIELD.  SHIELD had minimal activity in the UK, simply because Torchwood existed.  Director Fury had wanted that foothold to grow, but as long as Torchwood was there they’d never have much of a presence.  Torchwood, plus UNIT, had a stranglehold on missions within the British Empire.

It also didn’t help that there seemed to be far too many alien incursions on British soil.  The US hadn’t been hit all that often; in fact, Phil thought that the last major invasion has been back in 1969, during the affair with the Silence.  If there had been anything else, he was positive that SHIELD would have discovered it.  Director Fury knew it was only a matter of time before they’d spilled out into their ‘territory’, and they were woefully unprepared for it.

Fury had been correct.  Evidenced by the Daleks that had somehow moved the entire planet to somewhere else in the universe and had set about destroying much of its military infrastructure.

They’d been lucky so far that the Daleks didn’t seem all that interested in the Helicarrier.  Maybe Harkness had been right when he’d told Clint that the Daleks might disregard them if they weren’t considered a threat.  That foresight had saved hundreds of lives, although the Triskelion had taken a couple of fairly serious hits and would take at least a couple of months to repair.

But Clint was at Torchwood, and if they were on the front lines of this invasion…

It wasn’t as if Clint hadn’t been on dangerous missions before.  Hell, every mission had the potential for failure.  But usually Phil was in the loop when things went wrong.  This time, he had no clue.  He could only trust that Harkness and Jones would keep their team safe…and at the moment, that included both Clint and Phil’s own nephew.

Phil had heard from Maggie.  His sister and her husband, Everett, were in Cardiff, staying with Patrick while he was still recuperating from being shot about a month ago.  Phil had seen that sort of wound before, and knew that his nephew would take a while to get back to normal from it. 

Maggie had told him that she and Everett were taking refuge in the basement of Patrick’s apartment building, with the other residents that had been there at the time.  She’d told him that Patrick had offered to take them to Torchwood’s infamous Hub, but they’d declined, not wanting to distract their son while he’d been working.  She’d also moaned about not have any sort of weapons with her; but then, how had they known a murderous alien race was going to steal the entire planet?  There was just no way to prepare for that sort of thing.

He hadn’t heard from Maggie since that one phone call, but he actually was less worried about her and Everett than he was about Patrick and Clint.  Of course, he’d heard from Clint, but that had been hours ago, and a bow and arrow wasn’t a match for directed energy weapons. 

He had heard from Patrick, but he hadn’t said a thing about where Clint was.  That was worrying in and of itself.

Phil hadn’t thought much about Clint wanting to volunteer to cover while Torchwood was down by two people, including Patrick.  The story going around was that terrorists had targeted several buildings and Cardiff’s infrastructure, and that casualties had been surprisingly light, considering the damage.   There’d been rumours that the nearby nuclear power station had nearly gone into meltdown.  The strangest thing about that was the sudden appearance of a lake over the spot, and what looked like an excavation trench that had been dug toward Cardiff Bay and then refilled just as quickly as it had appeared. 

There had also been mentions of strange creatures with large teeth and wearing boiler suits, roaming the streets.  There hadn’t been any verifiable sightings of these creatures, but Fury was convinced they’d existed, although how he knew Coulson wasn’t aware.

In fact, the Director had been certain the whole thing had been yet another alien invasion and that Torchwood had fought it off. 

Phil thought Director Fury was a paranoid asshole, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be correct.

While he was considered Third in Command at SHIELD, right behind Nicholas Fury and Maria Hill, Phil knew there were things he just wasn’t cleared to know, and a lot of that concerned Torchwood.

Which meant he knew Patrick was keeping things from him, and he was fine with that.

It also meant Clint was privy to things Phil wasn’t, and he knew he’d be talking to Fury about upping Clint’s level once more, and other things besides.  Clint would make an excellent Level Seven.

This was predicated on Clint actually surviving all this.

Hell, it predicated on _all_ of them surviving this.

Phil had been up on the Helicarrier’s bridge ever since this had all begun, but had retreated to his office for a little privacy and a cup of coffee.  He needed a few minutes to gather himself together to face more of the Dalek madness outside.

Fury had sent a majority of the Helicarrier’s personnel to relative safety out into the city, leaving behind a skeleton crew just in case of attack.  Having all their people in one place in this circumstance had been asking for disaster, so it had made sense not to keep all their eggs in one basket.  It had left himself, Fury, and about twenty people on board; he’d sent Hill off with the rest of the crew, so if the Helicarrier was blown up with them on it at least SHIELD would still have someone who knew what they were doing in charge. 

Phil had stayed because he was ostensibly liaison to Torchwood, who was running point on this mess even though they didn’t have jurisdiction outside of their own country simply because they seemed to know what they were doing.  He couldn’t wait to hear what the cover story was going to be.

He sighed, finishing off his coffee.  Time to get back to the bridge, to see what had happened while he’d been gone.

He’d just gotten up from his desk when his cell phone rang.

Phil glanced at the caller ID, and it wasn’t a number he knew, but he recognised it as international.  He had it answered and up to his ear, needing to know what was going on but afraid to find out.

“Coulson.”

_“Hey, Phil.  It’s me.”_

Phil sagged in relief.  “Report, Agent,” he said, falling back into old habits.

There was a chuckle over the line.  _“Well, sir, I appear to be on the Doctor’s TARDIS heading into the jaws of a major alien incursion.”_

“The Doctor is involved?” Suddenly Phil had a lot more faith in the world getting out of this.  Not that he didn’t before, because Torchwood seemed to know what they were doing, but a majority of the files on the Daleks mentioned the Doctor being their sworn enemy, and for someone to have that sort of reputation he must have done quite a few things to earn it.

 _“That is incredibly difficult to explain,”_ Clint answered.  _“It’ll all be in my report after we go and kick Dalek ass, sir.”_

“I’ll look forward to reading it.”  The Phil paused, frowning.  “How are you calling me if you’re on the TARDIS?  How does that even work?”

Clint chuckled.  _“I borrowed this phone from a crazy lady named Donna.  Apparently, the Doctor fixed it so it could reach anywhere in the universe so she could keep in touch with her family.  Sir, if we get out of this we really need to recruit her.”_

That had to have been the Doctor’s current companion.  From everything he knew about those the Doctor chose to have travel with him, they were all extraordinary individuals.  Captain Harkness was counted among that number, as were two of the first SHIELD agents Director Carter had recruited, Amy Pond and Rory Williams.  If Clint thought they should be recruiting this Donna person, then Phil would see what they could do.

“I’ll take that under advisement.” 

There was a small silence on the line, then Clint was back.  This time, though, gone was his flirty Agent Barton professional demeanour and _his_ Clint had taken its place.  _“Look, Phil…if what we’re doing works, we’ll be able to get rid of the Daleks.  If it doesn’t…”_

“I don’t want to hear that if won’t work,” Phil insisted.  He didn’t even want to consider failure…consider losing Clint to a bunch of murdering aliens.  “It would be unacceptable for an agent of SHIELD to contemplate anything but a successful end to his mission.”

That got him a laugh.  _“Yes, sir.”_

Phil couldn’t help but smile a little.  “But after all this is done, you’re coming home.  You’ve been gone too long.”

 _“Aw…you_ have _missed me!”_

The tone was teasing, but Phil could hear the genuinely surprised affection in the words.  “I’ve missed you hanging around on the couch in my office, and not getting your reports in on time.”

_“Hey!  My reports are always on time!”_

“Bucharest.”

_“Only because I was stuck in Medical for a week!”_

It was easier for them to banter like this, when the fate of the entire world was on the line and they were separated by so many miles Phil couldn’t even add it together.  It was better than feelings and regrets and the idea that Phil felt as if they were drifting apart at times, especially when Clint had decided to spend his time off in another country than with him.  Phil wasn’t about to admit that he’d felt just a little jealous about Torchwood getting Clint’s time and energy, but it was just Clint being the decent human being he’d always been. 

Phil had been to Cardiff once to check on Patrick, and it was obvious that Clint had become friends with Patrick’s teammates.  He’d confided in Phil that they’d offered him a position in Torchwood, but that he hadn’t even considered accepting.  It would take him away from SHIELD…away from Phil.

Phil didn’t want to admit how pleased he’d been to hear that.

“Clint,” he said, clearing his throat, knowing he was about to get emotional because, damnit, the world was really close to ending and his archer wasn’t there, with him; instead, he was in an alien time machine, about to do something that was most likely foolhardy and could very well get him hurt.

Or killed.

No, that wasn’t an option.

 _“I understand,”_ Clint answered, saving Phil from being inexcusably sappy.  _“And yes, I’ll be home as soon as things are clear for me to be.  I’ll call again as soon as we take care of our little Dalek problem.  Oh, do you want me to bring you home a souvenir from the Crucible?”_

“Just bring yourself home, Clint.  That’s the only souvenir that I want.”

Clint was silent for a moment, most likely processing the emotions that Phil had been broadcasting yet not saying outright.  _“Well,”_ he finally spoke, _“I was thinking more along the lines of one of those Dalek guns…”_

“I have enough guns.  What I don’t have enough of are certain mouthy agents who have the tendency to get themselves into trouble at the drop of a hat.”

_“Not just any hat, sir.  Hold on a sec…”_

A voice murmured over the line, saying something that Phil couldn’t understand, only that he could tell it was a woman’s tone.  It obviously said something funny, because there was the little bark of a laugh that Phil loved hearing his lover give.

 _“I need to go,”_ Clint said.   _“The Doctor Double – it’s a really long and weird story, and I don’t have time right now to give you even the highlights – has this gizmo built that’s gonna help us defeat the Daleks, so it’s time to move.  Like I said, I’ll call when we’ve taken care of business.”_

“Be careful, Clint.” 

_“Don’t worry about me…I’m always careful!”_

Phil opened his mouth, about to break the one rule he’d been adamant about keeping…telling Clint that he loved him, when he was in his office and working.  They’d always agreed to keep work and personal separate, and so far, that had gone really well with them.

But this was Armageddon.  And if he didn’t say it now…

However, Clint didn’t give him a chance.

_“Gotta go, sir. See you on the other side!”_

The phone disconnected. 

Phil hadn’t even had a chance to say goodbye, which wasn’t all that bad a thing.

Saying it would have made the situation that much more dire.

Phil sighed.  He reached up and touched his earwig, needing to call Director Fury to let him know he’d heard from Clint.  Not that he had all that much to tell, but he could at least clue Fury in on the fact that the Doctor was on the scene and that there was some sort of plan in place.

Although, what the hell was that Doctor Double shit?

He barely had time to speak before Fury was in his ear, demanding his presence on the Helicarrier’s bridge.  The words, _“The fucking bastards are retreating,”_ had Coulson up and out of his seat before he would even register the action.

 

 


	39. Chapter 39

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_Cardiff_ **

****

Ianto hadn’t even been aware he’d dozed off over Toshiko’s workstation until a hand touched his shoulder, rousing him.

He blinked blurrily, and Deborah appeared, her pale eyes worried.  He was touched by her concern, and his own hand reached up and grasped hers.

She shivered slightly, her eyebrows drawing down.  “Your hand is cold.”

That…was worrying. 

Ianto naturally ran hot, due to his inner flame raising his human form’s body temperature.  It was one of the things most people noticed about him, but usually blew it off; the only time it had really gotten him into trouble had been when he’d ended up switching places with his doppelganger from another universe, and there they’d thought he’d been running a fever until the dragon had set them straight. 

They still weren’t certain how the whole dimension swap had taken place, because the walls were supposed to have been sealed.  Still, it had been an interesting experience.  Plus, to know there were so many variations of Ianto Jones out there had been absolutely fascinating.

“Did I hear that right?”

Of course, Owen had overheard Deborah’s observation.

As had everyone else – except for Toshiko, who was still unconscious on the sofa – judging from the sudden gathering around him.

“Alright, Dragon Boy,” Owen stated, “I’ve had enough of this shit.  Down in my office, now.”

Ianto could tell this ultimatum wasn’t just for show; Owen meant it, and if he didn’t comply he was most likely going to be drugged and hauled down for an examination while he was out of it. 

Judging from the rest of the team, they’d be willing accomplices to Owen’s medical coup.

He might as well bow to the inevitable and let Owen get it out of his system.

Sighing, Ianto was just levering himself out of his chair when an alarm began sounding from the computer.

He instantly slid back into the seat, needing to see what new fresh hell was going on.  His eyes widened as he took in what the sensors were telling him.

The Daleks were retreating.

And not just in Cardiff.  According to the scanners their ships were leaving the planet and heading back toward their base at the heart of the planetary configuration.

“Holy shit,” Patrick breathed.

“Does this mean they’ve done it?” Deborah gasped. 

Rhys was the one to bring the beginning of what might have been a celebration back down to Earth.  “But why are we still here, then?  Why hasn’t the planet been moved back?”

“Maybe they haven’t had time to get to that part yet,” Patrick answered. 

Ianto wasn’t sure.

If there had been a victory against the Daleks, Jack would have been calling to let them know.  His mate had both phone and comm with him, so there would haven’t been a reason for Jack not to contact them even though the comm unit didn’t have that much of a radius to it.  Unless something had happened to prevent it, but Ianto knew Jack; knew that he would have done anything to let them know at the Hub that they’d won.

“You think it’s something else,” Owen said shrewdly.

Trust the medic to catch on.

“I…don’t know,” the dragon admitted.  “If the Daleks had been truly defeated, don’t you think Jack would have let us know?  And you’re right, Rhys…the Earth isn’t moving.  She’s still suffering.”  He shook his head.  “I think we’re in for something a lot worse.”  He shivered slightly at his own, odd premonition.

Ianto straightened his spine, standing up without swaying too much.  There were things to be done, and they just couldn’t sit around and wait for it to happen. “While we’re seemingly clear, I want you, Rhys, to get down to the CID and liaise with Andy.  He’ll have his hands full with Kathy incapacitated, and you can bet he doesn’t have time to keep us up to date.”  He didn’t add that he wanted an update on Kathy’s condition; but then, that really didn’t need to be said. 

“Patrick,” he turned to the American, “I need you to get back with Eion Gwynne down at the Mayor’s Office, and see if they don’t have some sort of preliminary report on the condition of the city.  We need to get more information so we can figure out what we’re going to need to do to help fix things.”  Cardiff had already been rebuilding after Gray and John Hart’s rampage, and this would just add to the damage.  There was also no telling how many people had been killed or taken prisoner by the Daleks.

“On it, boss.”  Patrick took out his mobile, and Ianto was glad that his teammate had befriended the Lord Mayor’s Special Investigator after Torchwood had interviewed him for a position on the team.  While the dragon was on good terms with the City it still helped that they had an ‘in’ like that, as there were times when the government still liked to try to hide things from them.  He didn’t think that would be the case in this circumstance, however this gave Patrick something to do that wouldn’t overtax his shoulder.

This next part, he didn’t want to ask, but he had to. “Owen, I need you to go and check on Alice – “

“No fucking way,” Owen snarled. “I’m not about to leave you and Tosh here alone when the Earth moves again.”

Ianto had known he was going to have a fight on his hands over this.  “I’d go on my own, but I don’t want to be caught flying in case the planet _does_ get moved again – “

“And that’s about the only smart thing that’s come out of your mouth yet,” the medic snarked.  “You’d end up a dragon-shaped splat somewhere and I’m not about to explain to Harkness that I let his mate out in a diminished condition!”

“I’ll go,” Deborah spoke up. She was glaring at Ianto as if daring him to say anything.  “I know where Alice works, and I can take Patrick with me when he gets off the phone with Mr Gwynne.  Then maybe we can swing by his flat and check on his parents.”

The dragon didn’t want Deborah to be out unprotected, but having Patrick with her was enough, even though he wasn’t in the best physical condition.  Plus, she had a point: he’d want to make certain his parents were fine after everything that had happened…and was still happening.  Having Deborah drive him there was a very good idea.

There was no way of knowing when this was going to be all over. They had no real guarantee that the Daleks leaving the Earth was even a good thing.  It could have been a lead-up to something far worse, which was what Ianto’s instincts were telling him.  

“Alright,” he agreed.  He’d actually been planning on having Patrick do more liaising, especially with SHIELD and UNIT, but he could just as easily do that himself.  And, if it had to be done under Owen’s gimlet eye, then so be it.

It would also give him an excuse to speak to Agent Coulson about sharing certain information with a certain billionaire genius.

Owen looked a little surprised at Ianto’s capitulation, and the dragon had to stifle a smile at that.  The dragon did have to admit to himself that having him in the Hub with him and Toshiko made him feel slightly better, although he’d really wanted the qualified doctor on the team to check in on his adopted daughter.  As worried as he was about Kathy, he was terrified for Alice.  He would also have to figure out what they were going to need to do with Steven, if this went on much longer.  Jack had spoken to their grandson’s school, and the students were being kept safe within the building, but at some point they’d need to find a way to go and get him, what with Alice possibly being incapacitated.  It was a good thing that she’d already made arrangements at the school for either him or Jack to get Steven in case of emergency.

They still weren’t out of the woods yet.  It was obvious from the way the Earth felt, and even the Rift was still upset.  The usual soft rain-like pattering of the energy against his scales had morphed into what was more like bands of hard downpours that would get strong, and then fade off once more, over and over until Ianto was feeling metaphorically flayed.

“Now,” Owen said from Ianto’s elbow, startling the dragon somewhat as he hadn’t noticed the medic getting that close, “I need you down in the autopsy bay to get you checked out.  You being cold isn’t normal, and I’m gonna need to check you out.” He clapped a hand to Ianto’s shoulder.  “I’ll even give you a nice lolly if you’re a good little boy.”

Ianto rolled his eyes but allowed himself to be led toward the lower level where Owen’s domain sat.  “You’d better not have eaten all the cherry ones…”

“Nah, I got one saved especially for the next time I’d need to examine the big, bad, dragon.”

Unfortunately, he didn’t get very far.

His vision blurred out, tipping out of focus as he staggered.  The same green flames that had ghosted across his vision were back, stronger than before, licking across his nerves like acid. 

He barely heard Owen shouting, but he couldn’t react to it as he went down onto the hard concrete of the Hub floor, not even really feeling that impact as it was subsumed into the agony that was engulfing him.  The Earth was once more screaming at him, begging him in its own way for him to stop the pain that was afflicting it down to the very bones of the planet. 

The dragon actually felt the neurons of this brain misfiring and the magic within him writhing against his skin as if trying to dig its way out.

He didn’t even register the sharp pinprick pain of a needle penetrating his tough flesh, but he welcomed the darkness that accompanied it as if it was a very old friend waiting to wrap him up in comforting arms.

 

 


	40. Chapter 40

 

**_The TARDIS_ **

****

Clint handed the phone back to Donna, thanking her as together they headed back to the TARDIS’ control room.

She shrugged.  “Not a problem.  I know what it’s like when you have loved ones and they worry.”  She smiled.  “My Granddad was really glad to hear from me.”

“How does he handle it?” Clint asked.  “You, travelling in time like you do?”

“He encouraged me to go, actually,” she said.  “He met the Doctor first, a couple of Christmases ago. Only we didn’t know it was the same guy until after my little adventure with the Racnoss.”

He bumped her shoulder companionably. “You’re gonna need to finish telling that story.”

Clint really wanted to share about his own second-degree connection with the Time Lord, but he knew that, for this Doctor, it hadn’t happened yet.  He didn’t dare say a thing because he really didn’t want to wreck timelines.  The last thing he needed was to be blamed for some shit that got changed because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

The Doctor Double was leaning over the console when they arrived back onto the control room, a strange lash-up thing cradled in one arm as he poked and prodded several buttons on the console.   He glanced up at them as they entered, and then went back to whatever the hell he was doing.

Clint might not have known the alien for long, but he could already tell the guy was a dismissive bastard.  But then, he just seemed easily distracted a lot of the time.  Once again it reminded him of what he’d seen and read about Tony Stark. 

He had a sneaking suspicion that the Doctor and Stark would either hate each other’s guts or enter into one of the most epic bromances of all time.

“Alright,” Donna said, cutting into The Doctor Double’s work, “just what is that thing?”

He stopped what he was doing to explain, and he actually seemed a bit less manic than before.  He held up the cobbled together whatever it was so they could get a better look at it.  It almost resembled a gun, only with a flared front that resembled a very small satellite dish.  It was about the length of Clint’s forearm, but bulky; wires ran through the exposed guts of the thing, like multi-coloured spaghetti twisted together on all sorts of random ways.  There were two handgrips, one which must have been the trigger.

Clint wasn’t impressed, but if it did the job then who was he to judge?

Whatever that job was.

“It’s our only hope,” he answered.  “A zed-neutrino biological catalyser.”

“That’s the same stuff from that reading you got from when the planets lined up,” Clint pointed out.

The Doctor Double grinned like Clint had done a really entertaining trick.  “Exactly!

“Yeah, but what does it do?” Donna demanded.  “Earth girl here, remember?”

“Davros said he built those Daleks out of himself,” the Doctor Double said, cocking one hip against the sharp-looking edge of the console, tucking the weird device back against his chest as if he was protecting it from them.  “His genetic code runs through the entire race.  If I can use this to lock the Crucible’s transmission onto Davros himself…”  His voice faded out, and he looked at the pair of the expectantly, as if he was expecting them to finish his explanation for him.

“Then that zed-neutrino whatever will destroy Davros?’ Donna asked, looking puzzled.

Clint was just as confused.  What would be aiming that beam thing do, even if it did bomb the shit out of Davros?

The answer hit him the moment Donna said, “It destroys the Daleks too?”

The grin the Doctor Double aimed in her direction was just a little bit scary.  “Biggest backfire in history.”

“How close do you have to get to Davros for it to work?” Clint asked, his mind already turning over sightlines and possibilities. 

“Fairly close,” the Doctor Double admitted. 

“Then we’re gonna need to come up with some sort of plan to get close enough to use it, without getting blasted by every Dalek in the room.”

The Doctor Double frowned, obviously pensive.  Then he grinned.  “Guess I’ll just have to get a running start then.”

Yeah, like this sort of plan was ever going to work.  “Or else you let someone else aim and shoot.”

It was apparent that the guy was going to argue, but Clint knew he was right.  “We’ll need a distraction,” he pointed out before the Doctor Double could say anything, “and you showing up would be perfect, since I’m assuming they’re going to have your full Time Lord part as a prisoner still.  Having a second Doctor crash the party is bound to freak a few people out.”

Okay, it seemed like the Doctor Double was considering Clint’s words which, given the bastard seemed a bit full of his own intelligence, was saying something.  “Go on.”

“While they’re all busy with being distracted with you,” he continued, “someone else could have that gizmo and use it.”

“You’re thinking you could,” the Doctor Double said, sounding accusatory in a way that Clint just didn’t understand.

He shrugged.  “I hate to toot my own horn, but I do happen to be a sharpshooter.  If anyone has the best chance of hitting at what they aim at, it’s me.”

“He has a point,” Donna made her opinion known. 

Clint thought the Doctor Double was going to argue, that he didn’t think that Clint could pull it off.  His dark eyes pinned the archer as if he was trying to see into Clint’s soul, which he certainly hoped wasn’t the case because he honestly didn’t think it was all that clean, not after everything he’d done before finding himself on the side of the angels, so to speak.  It was a work in progress, he still had a lot of red in his ledger, but that would never stop him from doing the right thing now that he had good reason to.  He had friends now, and a form of family; a place of his own and enough self-respect to get through each day.  Plus, he had Phil, and there were days when Clint had no idea just what he’d done to deserve Phil’s love and attention. 

Finally, the Doctor Double nodded, one sharp gesture that was as adamant as a spoken word.  “Let me show you how to use this. But we need to get moving soon, because I don’t think Davros will wait to use the zed-neutrino device again.  He’s already recalling all the Daleks from the Earth.”

“Is this neutrino thingy going to destroy the planets once it’s used?” Donna asked.

“Yep.  If what I believe is true, it won’t be needed after this one, final detonation.  All of these worlds will cease to exist.”

“Then let’s get this show on the road.”  Clint also felt that time was getting away from them, and while this might have been an actual time machine he had the notion that, in this instance, it wouldn’t much help them.

 

**********

 

Learning how to use the techno-bobble didn’t take Clint all that long, for which he was grateful.  The Doctor Double actually seemed impressed with his ability to pick up the basics enough to work the thing, which made the archer feel undeniably proud of himself.

Then the Doctor Double took the TARDIS in for a landing.

Or whatever a sentient time machine did.

Clint could really feel the TARDIS’ gratitude, and he figured out just before it was show time that she was happy that he was going to be the one to pull the trigger.  He didn’t know why, but he could guess from the files he’d read on the Doctor.  If the rumours about the so-called Time War were true, then the Doctor wouldn’t have wanted to even contemplate yet another genocide…which was what the Doctor Double was doing by turning the zed-neutrino beam back on Davros, and then into the Daleks. 

Had the Doctor Double gotten that ruthless streak from Clint, in that metacrisis thing?  Because it certainly hadn’t come from Donna, and Clint could be a bastard when it came to completing a mission.  He also wasn’t afraid to kill his target, even though the people he’d assassinated on behalf of SHIELD had deserved it, and would have escaped justice otherwise.  Human traffickers, murderers, even other assassins…they’d all felt the bite of an arrow from a distance.

“You gonna be okay doing this?” Donna asked.

Clint glanced at her, smiling.  “Yep.  Don’t worry about me…you just stay out of the line of fire.  I just met you, and I’d like to keep on knowing you a while longer.”

“You worry about yourself, because Davros and the Daleks are gonna be aiming at you the moment they realise you’re firing at them.”

“I’m really hoping seeing the Doctor Double will keep them occupied long enough to get a shot off.”  A lot was riding on that, and Clint wasn’t ready to die yet. 

He called it a win when Donna snorted at the term ‘Doctor Double’.

The grinding, whirring sound that the TARDIS made got louder, and then it was gone, a soft ping coming from the console.  Clint took a deep breath, needing to centre himself, dropping into the familiar headspace that a good sniper needed to achieve before taking out his target.

“I’ll go out first,” the Doctor Double said.  “Clint, you stay behind the closed section of the door and be ready to use that thing when I get Davros distracted.  Donna…”

She rolled her eyes.  “Yeah, yeah…stay in the TARDIS.  I’m not an idiot, Spaceman point Two.”

Clint snickered at that nickname.  It was better than Doctor Double.  Maybe he’d use that one from now on. 

Nah.  That was Donna’s name for him.  Clint would keep using the one he came up with.

He moved past the Doctor Double and took up his position just behind the right-hand door, knowing the human-Time Lord would go out the other side.  He nodded when he was ready, the catalyser thing held up, finger on the activation button. 

The Doctor Double took a deep breath and then strode down the slight ramp toward the doors.  He acknowledged Clint’s nod, and then opened the door, stepping outside.

Donna, from the other side of the TARDIS door, held up the mirror like Clint had asked her to, so he could get a good look into the room beyond without having to show himself.

Clint was pretty proud of that idea.

In the polished glass, Clint watched as the Doctor Double made his way into the room beyond, which was a large space, mostly empty except for a large control board, two Daleks, Davros, and a bunch of other people including the original Doctor, Rose, and Jack.  And how the hell did Martha get there?  The last thing he’d heard, she’d been at her family’s house in London with her fiancé…

The older woman was Sarah Jane Smith; he recognised her from the sub-wave network. The last two – a man and another older woman – he didn’t know, but he thought the woman might have been related to Rose, from the resemblance he could see.

So…three hostiles, and seven hostages.  He’d been in worse situations before.

Although all those times he’d been armed with more than a technical doohickey that wouldn’t really hurt anyone until after the Dalek’s doomsday weapon was switched on.

He let his mind settle on his target, and waited for his chance…

 

 


	41. Chapter 41

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I'm on vacation today, here's a bonus Sunday chapter! And maybe there'll be another one after this... *winks*

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_The Dalek Crucible_ **

****

 Jack couldn’t believe his eyes.

He turned to the Doctor, who was being held within some sort of force field, and then back to the open door of the TARDIS.  The Doctor who was stepping out of it wore a blue suit, different from the one on the current, captive Doctor, and there was something different about him…Jack couldn’t put his finger on it.

Was this some future version of the man standing, illuminated in the light of the energy field that surrounded him?  Had the Doctor crossed his own time stream to come back and defeat Davros and the Dalek Empire he’d created?

But that was the TARDIS…the same TARDIS he’d seen destroyed within the heart of the Crucible.  How has she survived that?  Had she gone forward into the future to fetch this Doctor and bring him there, in the nick of time, before the Reality Bomb was due to detonate?

“This is impossible!” Davros practically screamed.  The mad genius behind the Daleks looked gobsmacked at the appearance of a Second Doctor, so much so his chair moved back from the Time Lord in a move that had to have been unconscious. 

“That is so brilliant!” Rose exclaimed.

The Doctor, however – the one in the cell – didn’t look at all happy at the doppelganger striding away from the TARDIS.

Jack stood up, taking his own step away from the second Doctor, so shocked that he was staring at them both in a mixture of surprise and horror.  Two different Doctors…two different timelines…so much could go wrong with this that he wanted nothing more than to toss the one back into the TARDIS and send him on his way, despite the fact that he was there to save the day. 

The second Doctor stopped a short distance from the open TARDIS, hands on his hips.  “Davros!” he called out, his dark eyes in full Oncoming Storm mode, and yet there was a teasing smirk on his face.  “Nice place you’ve got here, although the decorations could use a bit of improvement.”

“Doctor,” Davros greeted, sounding far more mad than he had up until that point.  Having two Doctors in the same room must be tipping him over into full-blown insanity.  Just how did someone react when his enemy was in the same place, in two different ways? 

“Is that a future version or a past one?” Martha whispered.

Jack turned to look at her; she’d also stood, her own eyes watching the confrontation play out in front of them.  “No idea, Nightingale,” he answered honestly, “but this isn’t a good thing despite the fact that he’s most likely here to save all our asses and the planets the Daleks stole.  There’s no telling what this is doing to the timelines.”

In the background, Jack would hear the countdown to detonation.  It was like a death knell at the edge of his consciousness.  It would be anytime now, so the Doctor needed to get a move on if he was going to save the rest of the universe.

He eyed the pair of Daleks that were on guard within the chamber.  They had their eyestalks on their creator and the second Doctor.  Jack took a step toward one of them, and then another, knowing he wouldn’t be able to overpower one on his own but needing to be in position for whatever the Doctor had up his pinstriped sleeve.

“How are you here?” Davros was demanding.  It was something Jack wanted to know as well.  “The TARDIS was destroyed.”

The Doctor made a rude noise with his lips.  “Like being dropped into zed-neutrino energy is enough to do that!  You and your Daleks have seriously underestimated me, Davros.”

“Then it is time I stopped doing that!”

With those words, Davros lifted his single hand, pointing the metal-covered index finger toward the Doctor.  From its tip a jagged bolt of energy shot out, striking the second Doctor high on the chest, tossing him back toward the control console that was lurking against the wall.

The gasp that echoed through the chamber was loud, as it came from several different people.

The second Doctor didn’t move.

Davros began to cackle maniacally.

The bolt of energy that erupted from the open door of the TARDIS slammed into Davros, the force of it pushing him backward uncontrollably, until he stopped near the rear wall.

The countdown to detonation reached zero.

Jack barely had time to register Clint stepping out of the TARDIS, strange weapon in hand, followed by Donna, the redhead running toward the fallen Doctor, when the Reality Bomb went off.

However, something strange happened.

Suddenly, green fire flared into life, surrounding Davros.  The creator of the Daleks began to scream, a high, electronically tinged sound of rage and pain.

The two Daleks in the chamber exploded.

The sound of Daleks in distress rang throughout the Crucible, followed closely by bursts of sound that could only be every single one of them detonating.

“What have you done?” the Doctor demanded as the forcefield around him spluttered brightly, then collapsed.

Donna was helping the other Doctor to his feet, and she rolled her eyes.  “Oh, hi Donna!  Nice to see you’re still alive, Donna.  Thanks for helping to save our arses, Donna!”

Jack wanted to hug her.

Instead, he began ushering everyone toward the TARDIS.  Daleks all over the Crucible were being destroyed, and he didn’t want anyone caught in the middle of all that destruction.  There was no telling just what that would do to the structural integrity of the space station and he wasn’t about to risk losing anyone just when it looked as if they were all going to get out of this alive.

Already the Crucible was shuddering under the assault of so many Daleks being destroyed practically all at once. 

“Hey, boss.” Clint came up to him, resting the odd gun-shaped device on his shoulder.  It should have made him seem like a cocky bastard, but instead the SHIELD agent merely looked competent.

Jack had no choice but to hug him. 

Clint gave an, “Oof!” of surprise, but hugged him back, one-armed. 

“Don’t ever do that to me again!” Jack ordered as he pulled away.  “I’ve been sweating bullets on how I was going to explain to Agent Coulson how I got you killed.”

Clint blushed a little.  “Well, you’re off the hook.  Let’s say we get shit done and then go home?  I need some of Ianto’s coffee like most people need air.”

Jack had to laugh at that, even though he was very much worried about his mate.  There was no telling what the energies being channelled between the planets was doing to Ianto, or to Alice and Toshiko and the other Great Dragon Friends. 

Yeah, it was time to get shit done, as Clint had so eloquently put it, and then go home.

 

 


	42. Chapter 42

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, yeah...second chapter. :)

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_The Dalek Crucible_ **

****

As the Crucible shook around them, Jack stood at the door of the TARDIS, watching as both Doctors – with a hovering Donna watching them closely – worked around the control console, doing things with the various knobs and sockets around the device.  “How they hell are there two Doctors?” he couldn’t help but ask.

“That is an interesting story that I don’t completely understand,” Clint admitted.  “But I did see that hand in the jar grow into the Doctor Double…well, that’s what I call him, anyway.  He’s also human.  Said something about a metacrisis.  Apparently, he got bits of Donna and me when it happened.”

Jack frowned.  If he understood the term ‘metacrisis’ correctly, then that hand of the Doctor’s had used the regeneration energy that the Doctor had poured into it and had created another Doctor out of it, using DNA from both Donna and Clint to stabilise the matrix.  He’d done quite a bit of research on the subject of Time Lord regeneration, back when he’d been an uncontracted agent for Torchwood and had been waiting for the Doctor to show up, and while he didn’t pretend to understand it all, and the records were hardly comprehensive, Jack was pretty certain such a thing should never have happened.

There was a bit of an argument currently going on with the pair of Doctors.  It looked as if the one in the brown suit – the original – was yelling at the blue-suited one – the Doctor Double, as Clint had put it – and Jack would have given anything to have been listening in if he wasn’t being so busy holding onto the TARDIS as the lurching of the Crucible grew worse.

He could just make out Davros amid the flames.  He looked as if he was still alive, but Jack doubted that would be the case much longer.  Whatever that device that Clint had used must have done a lot of damage to him as well as setting up the cascade of destruction amongst the Daleks, and he was slumped down in his chair, his good hand twitching just a little, surrounded by the broken shells of the Daleks that had been in the Vault with them.

Jack couldn’t find it within himself to much care.

Davros had long been a bogeyman out in the universe.  He was the Father of the Daleks.  It had been his vision that had brought into existence one of the most dangerous races ever to have been imagined.  To Jack, this was justice, that Davros should be dying amid the ruins of his creations, victim to his hubris and insanity.

The blue-suited Doctor began to stomp off toward the TARDIS, Donna following close behind.  “We were able to get most of the planets back to where they belong,” the Doctor Double growled, “but there’s still the Earth left, and we need to get it moved before this place shakes itself apart around us and the equipment keeping the planet stable goes down.”

With those words, he entered into the TARDIS.  Donna stopped, motioning back to the other Doctor.  “Will you get that dumbo into the TARDIS?” she asked acerbically, the tone one that Owen would have appreciated.  “He’s insisting we save Davros as well, and while I would normally go along with whatever the Doctor wanted, this is just being plain stupid.”

She also stepped into the TARDIS, leaving Jack and Clint still outside. 

Jack sighed.  He should have expected this.  While Jack wasn’t a naturally bloodthirsty individual, he knew there was a time and a place, and this wasn’t it.  “I’ll get him,” he sighed. 

“I’ll cover you,” Clint volunteered.

Jack felt supremely confident in Clint’s ability to watch his back as he made his way across the tilting floor of the Vault.  Flames were everywhere, and he coughed in order to clear his lungs. 

Davros was awake now, and he was shouting loud enough for Jack to hear over crackling of the fires and the still-loud explosions going on throughout the Crucible.   “You did this!  I name you forever, Doctor…I name you the Destroyer of Worlds!”

He and the Doctor might have been on the outs, but Jack really wanted to put a bullet in Davros for saying that.  If anyone could have been called the Destroyer of Worlds, it was Davros, since that was exactly what the Daleks had done uncounted number of times.  Jack snagged the Doctor by the sleeve, tugging him away.  “He doesn’t want to be saved,” he yelled in the Doctor’s ear.  “We need to get out of here!”

The Doctor wanted to argue, that was obvious from the mutinous expression on his face, but Jack wasn’t going to let him get away with it.  If the Time Lord kept hating him, then so be it.  “The Earth is still in danger,” Jack pointed out.  “What’s more important: one madman who wants to die, or an entire planet full of innocent people?”

That was the problem with the Doctor: he felt he could save everyone.  Jack had learned the lesson the hard way that this was nearly impossible, even though that didn’t stop him from trying.  The Doctor, though, despite being such an ancient being, still hadn’t quite grasped that. 

Still, he allowed Jack to pull him away from the ranting Davros and toward the TARDIS, where Clint was keeping watch from the still-open door.  The Crucible was destroying itself around them as Jack practically shoved the Doctor into the time machine, the archer on their heels and slamming the door behind them.

The Doctor ran to the console, where his double was already working.  He pulled the main view screen toward him, saying as he did so, “Calling the Torchwood Hub!  This is the Doctor calling the Torchwood Hub.”

Jack was at his side in a heartbeat, needing to make certain his team – his mate – was alright and wondering just why the Doctor was contacting them for, with his dislike of both Jack and Ianto, and in extension, Torchwood.

The screen focussed past the snow that had been on it, revealing the Hub…and Owen Harper, looking distinctly stressed out and furious.  _“What do you…oi, Harkness!  You get things fixed up there?”_ The anger was replaced with relief. 

Jack opened his mouth to answer, but the Doctor beat him to it.  “I need you to open up the Rift Manipulator and send all that power to me.”

Owen’s relief disappeared.  _“While I’d love to do just that, I can’t.  The two people who know their way around the programs are incapacitated because of the Earth being all out of kilter.”_

That meant Ianto and Toshiko…Jack swore his heart stopped at the news.  “They’re going to be okay?” he demanded.

 _“I don’t bloody know that, do I?”_ Owen snapped.  _“Get the Earth back where it belongs and they should be right as rain.  But there’s no one here who can do what you want.”_

“We need that power,” the Doctor argued.  “I need it to tow the Earth back to its position in space.”

That made sense.  But if Ianto and Toshiko were down…

“I’ll do it,” Jack volunteered.  He held out his wrist strap.  “Set this thing for the Hub, and I’ll teleport back and do what you need done, Doctor.”

For a moment, he didn’t think the Time Lord was going to do it.  Jack knew how the Doctor felt about Jack having actively working time travel, and honestly he’d been expecting it to the disabled again once this was all over.

“Do this,” Jack bargained, “then I’ll find you once the Earth is back and you can break my Vortex Manipulator all over again.”

The Doctor gave him such a glare that Jack was surprised it didn’t kill him as he stood there. 

“I’ll stay,” Clint said.  During their confrontation, he’d come to stand beside Jack, lending his quiet support.  He shrugged.  “Jack’s sure to come back for me.”

“Yeah, because Agent Coulson would have my ass if I left you somewhere, unsupervised,” Jack snorted.

Clint smirked.  “What can I say?  He’s overprotective.”

The Doctor didn’t say anything, but the second Doctor appeared.  He grabbed Jack’s wrist, pulling the Vortex Manipulator toward him, accessing the interface easily.  He aimed a sonic screwdriver at it as he pressed a couple of buttons.  “Don’t make me wrong about trusting you, Jack.”

Clint bristled, and Jack knew he would have said something they’d both regret if he didn’t step in.  “I’ll have the Rift Manipulator opened as soon as I get to the Hub,” he promised. 

With a last nod toward Clint, hoping the archer would get the hint and not pick a fight with either Doctor, he activated the wrist strap and was gone.

 

 


	43. Chapter 43

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_Cardiff_ **

****

Jack recognised the Hub immediately, but didn’t recall leaving it in the shape it was now.

There was a fine film of dust over everything, as if Ianto hadn’t run a duster over anything in weeks.  Several small pieces of rubble littered the floor, and with a jolt Jack realised that the Hub must have come under attack after he and Clint had left. 

“Owen!” he shouted, needing to see his medic and to know if everyone was alright.  Yes, he’d seen Owen through the sub-wave, but that was different than actually laying physical eyes on him.

“Down here!” came the answering shout from the autopsy bay.

Jack rushed through the Hub, past Toshiko, who was laying on the sofa, a blanket covering everything except her hair, and was at the railing looking down into the bay even before he was aware he’d moved.  Down in the medical area, he saw Owen bustling around the metal exam table in the centre of the room, where Jack’s mate was lying, pale and still.

“How is he?” he demanded breathlessly, his heart pounding like it wanted to jump right out his chest. “And how’s Toshiko?”

Owen’s eyes met his, and Jack could see the worry in them.  “We need to get this planet back to where it belongs,” the medic reported, “and I don’t see where either of them won’t recover.  But it needs to be soon, Jack, so hop to it and get done what the Doctor needs.”

Jack gave him a nod, and then headed back up into the main Hub.  Toshiko’s workstation was the best one to use in order to access the Rift Manipulator, and so he sat himself down and got to work.

While he wasn’t as proficient as Toshiko and, to a smaller extent, Ianto, Jack did know his way around mainframe.  She liked him quite well…not as well as she did Toshiko and Ianto, but well enough to give him what he needed, when he needed it. 

The Rift programs were Toshiko’s baby, though.  After she’d come on board with Torchwood, their knowledge of the Rift had increased tenfold, more than any other time in Torchwood Three history.  Ianto had helped her, in his own way, with his ability to sense the Rift’s energy and predict when it was going to spike.  Working together, the pair had made Rift Prediction an art form. 

It made manipulating the Rift that much simpler.

Jack got into the programs that ran the Manipulator.  The hardwiring they’d done to send the signal to the Doctor was still in place, so it was only a matter of minutes before everything that could be siphoned off from the Rift was being aimed directly at the TARDIS per the Doctor’s plan.

This would mean the Rift would most likely be drained for a while, but that was fine.  It was nice to get a quiet period before things heated up once more.  Unfortunately, there was no way of telling how long that would last, but it would at least give their injured teammates more time to fully recover.

That now included Toshiko and Ianto.

Getting up from the workstation, Jack made his way over to his technical expert.  He carefully pulled back the blanket, not wanting to risk waking her, and was shocked at her wan appearance.  Her normal complexion had an almost yellow tinge to it, and there were dark circles around her eyes, as if she’d been punched in the face.  Jack thought there were pinkish streaks on his cheeks, and a bit of blood caked one of her nostrils.

He gently swiped away a strand of hair from her forehead then leaned over a brushed a kiss across overly warm skin.  Jack was so very worried about her, but Owen seemed to think she’d recover once the Earth was back where it belonged.  He tucked her back in, heading toward the autopsy bay, where his mate was.

Owen had covered Ianto with a blanket.  Jack reached underneath for one of his mate’s hands, tangling their fingers together.  His skin was unnaturally cold, and Jack brought it up to his mouth, exhaling across the knuckles, trying to warm then up once more.

“Dragon Boy’s core temp is down,” the medic reported.  “It’s like his inner flame is fading.”

“What could cause that?” Jack was desperately worried.  Ianto had always run hot because of that flame, and for it to be almost gone…

“Despite Ianto’s deeper connection to the Earth Dragon, his race is actually a balance of all four.  Since all the Great Dragons are being affected, all this shit is messing with his entire metabolism.”

“The Rift is connected to the TARDIS,” Jack replied.  “It’ll be over soon…one way or the other.”

He’d barely spoken when the entire Hub began to shake.

The TARDIS was towing the Earth back to its usual place in the universe.

Jack found himself holding onto the exam table for dear life as the earthquake made the floor dip and heave.  Owen found himself being thrown back toward the steps, and the medic grabbed onto the railing with both hands, and he was shouting as if he was on the best roller coaster ever, a combination of fear and excitement that had Jack answering it with a cry of his own.

The Doctor’s plan must be working.

Ianto began to slide off the exam table; Jack threw himself across his lover, hoping to keep him in place.  He hoped Toshiko was alright out there on the sofa, and also that he didn’t get seasick.

The shaking seemed to go one forever, but it eventually stopped.  Jack clung to the table a few extra seconds, to make certain it didn’t start up again, then he straightened up, tucking the blanket back around his mate. 

“Fuck,” Owen groaned, “and I just cleaned up in here.”

Jack took a look around, noticing the overturned rolling tables and instruments scattered all over the tiles.  “Well, you’ll have time to after I’ve headed back to the TARDIS.”

He really didn’t want to.  The idea of giving up his newly working Vortex Manipulator was making his stomach hurt.  How many times in the past had they needed that sort of advantage?  They’d had it that one time, with the space whale, but he certainly could have used it when Gray and John Hart had attacked Cardiff, and off the top of his head Jack could think of at least another half a dozen times it would have made a difference.

But no. He’d promised the Doctor he’d let him disable it for good, and Jack was determined to show the Time Lord that he could keep his word.  It hurt that he didn’t trust the immortal, but it was just more pain tossed on top of all the rest that had been heaped on him ever since he’d run after the TARDIS last year.

Jack wished he’d never done it now.  He could have more easier lived with the uncertainty of his condition than knowing the Doctor couldn’t stand to be around him.

But, at the time, that result hadn’t even crossed his mind.  He’d thought he’d been accidentally left behind, not deliberately abandoned.  He’d believed that his reunion with the Doctor would have been a joyous affair, not filled with disgust and condescension. 

Now, of course, he knew.

Jack wasn’t about to prove the Doctor right, and run away.  No, he’d keep his word, and go back to the TARDIS to collect Clint and be abandoned once again.

Jack wasn’t about to do the same thing to Clint that the Doctor had done to him, even though at least Clint would be somewhere on Earth, and not on a space station filled with death and dust and despair.

“Call me when you hear from the others,” Jack ordered, heading back out of the autopsy bay.  “If either Toshiko or Ianto wakes up, see if they’re in any condition to run damage reports.  We’ll need to get things back up to speed as soon as we can, because the Rift is going to ramp up again as soon as it recharges.”

“Dragon Boy’s out for the count,” Owen said, walking with Jack back up into the main Hub.  “I had to sedate him.  I was afraid he’d change into his natural shape if I didn’t.  But I’m hoping Tosh will be up soon, now that we’re done being slung about all over the fucking universe.” 

“Keep me informed.  I’m liable to be stuck in London for a bit.”  He really didn’t want to be away from his team and family, but there would be no help for it.  Jack seriously doubted that the trains would be running on time for a while, and he had no doubt that was where the TARDIS would end up.  He also was certain that the Doctor wouldn’t feel magnanimous about bringing Jack and Clint back to Cardiff, and the immortal wasn’t about to ask.

Owen frowned.  “Your wrist thingy is working again, though.”

Jack stifled a sigh.  “The Doctor fixed it so I could get back here and work on the Manipulator.  I had to promise to come back and let him break it again.”

“Bollocks,” the medic growled.  “That thing could be right useful in a crisis.”

There wasn’t anything Jack could say to that, since he agreed.  Still, he’d fulfil his promise and get back to the TARDIS and let the Time Lord do whatever the hell he was going to with it.

He flipped open the wrist strap, knowing that he’d not have to reset anything in order to get back, that the Doctor would have made certain he couldn’t go anywhere else.  “Clint and I will be back as soon as we can.  I have my phone on me, so check in when either Toshiko or Ianto wake up.”

“You got it.”  Owen sketched a salute and then headed over to check on Toshiko.

Jack took a deep breath, and then activated the teleport.

 

 


	44. Chapter 44

 

**_The TARDIS_ **

****

Rose watched the altercation between Jack and the Doctor, even more confused than ever.

She was going to find out what had happened while she’d been in the alternate dimension after everything calmed down.  There had to be some way to heal the breach between the two most important men in her life, and she was determined to find it.

When she’d entered the TARDIS, the second Doctor had explained about how he’d come to be in a few words, but Rose thought she got it.  She’d actually stepped on a piece of glass near the console, and that icky hand was gone.  It seemed impossible to her, that another Doctor had grown from that single hand, but it wasn’t the craziest thing she’d seen or heard while travelling with the Time Lord…which really said something, didn’t it?

When he’d said that both Donna and Clint were also catalysts for his being created, it suddenly brought the reason that the Dimension Cannon had fixated onto those two into focus.  If they hadn’t been present inside the TARDIS, then this second Doctor would never have been made, and the Daleks would have won. 

It had all been destiny, of a sort.

In a flash of light, Jack was gone.  Rose missed him immediately. A part of her had hoped he’d stick around, and that he could start travelling with them again, but there was something about him even if he and the Doctor weren’t getting along; something that had changed in the time they’d been separated.  He seemed more mature, more responsible, with his team and his boyfriend and the planet under his protection.  In a way, he’d become the Doctor, if the Doctor was human and had settled in one place.

She still wanted to know what had caused him to come back to Earth, to the 21st century, but there was still time to find that out when he came back.

And just why the Doctor seemed to dislike him for it.

Then the Doctor was addressing the sub-wave once more.  She heard Jack acknowledge his arrival back at Torchwood, and that he was working on what the Doctor had wanted him to do.

“Sarah Jane,” the Time Lord called.  “What’s your son’s name?”

She was standing on one side of the console.  “His name is Luke.  And the computer is Mr Smith.”

The Doctor was back at the monitor, speaking to Sarah Jane’s son.  Rose wondered when that had happened, because the last time she’d seen the older woman Sarah Jane hadn’t mentioned having one.  He was asking this computer to do something with the Rift energy that Jack was sending them, which Rose assumed was from the Cardiff Rift, and they were talking about things she really didn’t understand.

She found her mother standing next to her.  Rose sighed, turning to her.  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was leaving.”

Jackie had her arms crossed.  “We had to find out over dinner with your Dad – “

“He’s not my Dad!”

Something crossed her Mum’s face, something that Rose couldn’t identify.  “We’ve known you were unhappy, which is why Pete made sure you had a project to occupy you.  But even he didn’t think the Dimension Cannon would actually work.”

Rose’s mouth dropped open.  “You mean he did it…”

“To help you, yes.  None of the scientists on the project really thought it would work either, so you can imagine everyone’s surprise when it did.”

That…couldn’t be right, could it?  That Pete had only set up the Dimension Cannon Project just to make her feel better? 

It shifted her perspective. It made her rethink everything she’d ever considered about the alternate version of her father.  She didn’t think he’d particularly cared about her, only accepting her presence because she was Jackie Tyler’s daughter by a man who just happened to look like him.  She’d thought he’d created the Dimension Cannon Project in order to utilise her knowledge of other universes, hoping to be able to access them again one day for his own purposes. 

Instead, he’d been trying to help her by giving her a reason to keep going.

What would he have done if it really hadn’t worked?  What would he have done to try and help her then?  Had he been hoping that she’d finally be convinced that things weren’t all that bad and that she’d come to enjoy her new life?

She didn’t think Mickey had known.  He certainly wouldn’t have tried to convince Pete not to indulge her otherwise.  But her Mum had known, and had gone along with it.

“We just wanted you to be happy, sweetheart,” Jackie murmured. 

She could see that, now. 

Rose felt tears build up in her eyes.  All she’d wanted to do was get back to the Doctor, and her family, even knowing that it was most likely impossible, had encouraged her need to try.  They’d been supporting her all this time and she’d been too selfish to realise it.

She hugged her Mum.  “Thanks.  Love you, Mum.”

“Love you too,” Jackie murmured into her hair.

“Alright,” the Doctor’s voice got their attention.  Rose looked at him, keeping her arm around her Mum, because she needed the contact in that moment.  The original Doctor was motioning to them all, while the other Doctor was sloping against the wall, as if trying to get people to forget he was there.  “Do you know why this TARDIS is always rattling around all over the place?  Because she’s been designed for six pilots and I’ve been doing it all on my own.  So, everyone, gather round!”

The Doctor began positioning everyone around the console, although when he got to Jackie he carefully moved her out of the way; knowing her mother the way she did, Rose thought that was a very smart thing to do.  Once he had them where he wanted them, the Doctor began to show them all what to do.

From Rose’s place at the main console, she let her fingers trace along the organic-looking controls she was in charge of.  A part of her was thinking that maybe she wasn’t the right person for the job, but the TARDIS didn’t share her concern; a warm wave of acceptance washed over her through her fingertips, and she couldn’t help but grin.

This really was where she belonged, despite having learned what her mother had just shared with her.  She belonged in the TARDIS, with the Doctor, and as far as she was concerned she’d never be leaving again.

Somehow, Clint had ended up beside her.  Her eyes flicked toward him, and she couldn’t help but laugh at the sheer excitement on his face.  It wasn’t every day someone got to help pilot a real-life time machine, and it was obvious that he was loving every minute of it.

This was her chance.  Clint worked with Jack; surely he’d know what was up with him and the Doctor.  So, she asked.

She got a shrug instead of any real answer.  “I just met Jack about a month ago.  I know Ianto better, but he hasn’t told me what the hell’s up with those two.  Although I get the feeling Jack did something that the Doctor didn’t agree with, and that it has to do with this crazy bastard who tried to destroy the planet.  You might want to ask Martha.  She was involved with all that shit.”

Rose peered across the console at Martha Jones.  She was standing between Mickey and Sarah Jane, and she looked just as excited as everyone else did at having a chance to pilot the TARDIS.  Donna said something to her, and she laughed in delight, while Mickey simply rolled his eyes.  Martha had been a companion as well, and Rose wondered if this was the reason she wasn’t travelling with the Doctor any longer.

Donna caught her looking, and her smile went from wicked to kind in the blink of an eye.  The redhead made her way around to Rose, touching her on the shoulder as she settled between her and Clint.  “He’s glad you’re back, you know.”

Rose couldn’t help her own smile.  “I’m glad to be back.”  She was.  This was what she’d been aiming for, for years; being back on the TARDIS, travelling with the Doctor on his adventures.  Her eyes flicked over to the Time Lord – the one in brown, who was currently showing Mickey something on the console – and she felt warmth spread through his chest.  “How long have you been with him?” she asked out of curiosity.

Donna shrugged.  “Not all that long.  Turned him down the first time he asked, and that was when he picked up Martha.  Don’t have any details on why she left, but I think it was pretty traumatic.”

Rose frowned.  She just knew this had to do with why Jack and the Doctor were on the outs.  “But what I don’t understand is why Jack is even in this century.  The Doctor and I left him in the future, where he was supposed to be helping out the human race rebuild after another Dalek invasion.”

Donna looked perplexed, which Rose took to mean she didn’t know what had gone on.

She was frustrated.  Rose wasn’t getting anything from her or Clint.  He obviously hadn’t been told a thing.  She’d need to corner Martha as soon as she could.

If Rose was going to fix this, she needed to have the truth.

 


	45. Chapter 45

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is another two chapter day, since these really should be read together...

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_London_ **

 

The Earth was deposited back to where it belonged, with very little damage done that Rose could see.

The atmosphere within the TARDIS was charged with excitement as the time machine landed.  The original Doctor had the doors flung open even before the rotor had settled, and the rest of the crew were just happy to hug each other in sheer joy.

That was, of course, when Rose made her move.

Martha hugged her.  “I’m so very pleased to meet you,” the other woman exclaimed.  “He’s really missed you.”

Rose felt gratified that the Doctor had seemingly missed her as much as she had him.  She returned the hug, but then pulled away.  “I have to know…what happened between the Doctor and Jack?”

Martha’s smile faded, and the brightness in her eyes dimmed.  “I’m not sure I should say anything…”

“I want to be able to fix it, and I can’t if I don’t know the facts.”

“Honestly, I’m not sure it _can_ be fixed.” Martha sighed, and then pulled Rose off into a corner.  “Look, I’m only telling you this because I think you need to know if you intend on trying to put their relationship back together, so you don’t accidentally step on any sort of proverbial landmine.”  Martha paused, as if gathering her thoughts.  “Okay.  Everything dates back to the Gamestation…”

Rose felt herself go into shock as Martha explained what she knew about the trouble between Jack and the Doctor.  The Doctor had _left_ Jack behind on the Gamestation?  “But why?”

“Because the Doctor can’t stand to look at him now,” Martha answered.  “Something about him being a fixed point in space and time.”

“How is that even possible?”

Now Martha looked confused.  “Because Jack’s immortal now.” 

 _What_?

Something in Rose’s face must have communicated her shock, because Martha’s eyes widened.  “Wait…you mean you didn’t know about you bringing him back to life?”

“I remember that,” Rose exclaimed, her brain not yet processing what Martha had just said.  “He’d been killed by the Daleks!  It wasn’t right that Jack had died like that!  But…immortal?  What do you mean?”

“When you brought Jack back using the Vortex,” Martha said gently, her eyes full of terrible sympathy, “you brought him back forever.  He can’t die…well, he can die, but he can’t stay dead.”

Rose thought back to the Crucible, how the Dalek had shot Jack…and how Jack had somehow survived.  That had seemed like a miracle.  Now, she knew the truth.

Tears threatened to fall, and Rose dashed them away.  How could she have done something so horrible to the man who’d been her best friend?  She’d only meant to bring him back to life that one time!  It had been so unfair that he’d sacrificed himself, and Rose couldn’t stand the idea of someone as full of life as Jack Harkness being dead. 

But what she’d done was horrific.  She’d condemned Jack to an existence of loneliness; she could see that, just from her experience with the Doctor.  Maybe it would have been best to have left him dead…

“No, don’t think that,” Martha said, once again interpreting her expression correctly.  “Jack might have been unhappy at first, but now…he has someone he’ll be able to spend eternity with, and he’s probably one of the most content people I know.”  She huffed a laugh.  “In fact, those of us who know Jack and Ianto only wish we have the sort of relationship they do.  We just celebrated their mating last month.  It was one of the biggest blow-outs I’ve even been to!”  She took Rose’s hand.  “He wouldn’t have that if you hadn’t mistakenly made him the way he is.”

A weight lifted from Rose’s chest at that.  The last thing she’d wanted to do was to hurt Jack, and to know that what she’d done had led him to true happiness…well, that just proved that there could be happily ever afters out there.

But…a mating?  Did that mean Jack was actually committed to someone monogamously?  It seemed so unreal to even consider that the confirmed bachelor and flirt had been tied down like that!

“I’m not saying it’s been easy for him,” Martha went on.  “Jack went through some bad things when he discovered he couldn’t stay dead.  One of the reasons he came to Cardiff was to see if he could find the Doctor, knowing he often refuelled the TARDIS from the Cardiff Rift.  He spent over one hundred years waiting for the Doctor to show up, to get answers he didn’t have.  And, when he finally did find a version of the Doctor he could interact with…”

She went on to tell Rose about what Martha called that Year, which had her almost sick with horror.  Jack had been tortured by a madman who knew he couldn’t remain dead?  Once again, the guilt settled over her, even though everything had turned out alright in the end Jack had to live with those memories of all those terrible acts the Master had perpetrated upon her friend. 

And the Doctor hadn’t actually helped.  He’d told Jack that he was _wrong_ , of all things! It hadn’t been Jack’s fault that he was the way he was; it was hers, and what Rose had done out of love for a dear friend who’d given his life to make certain the Doctor had time to put his plan into action.  What made this worse was that the Doctor, in the end, couldn’t do it, and so Jack had died for nothing. 

But to understand that the Doctor blamed _Jack_ …

Suddenly, Rose felt the need to apologise to Jack for her part in all of this. 

Rose didn’t realise that they’d gained an audience until a hand rested on her shoulder, in a gesture of comfort.  She glanced back to see Clint standing there, his own eyes shadowed.  “Did you know about all this?”

“I knew about that Year,” he admitted.  “You can’t hang around Torchwood for long without hearing stories about the Nightingale and the Dragon, and their exploits at walking the world in order to save it.  I didn’t know about Jack being immortal, though it explains a lot.”

Now the short conversation she’d overheard on the sub-wave made sense.  Martha was the Nightingale, while Ianto Jones was the Dragon.  They’d been heroes and no one would ever remember it, if the story about that Year being a paradox was true. 

It was sad in a way.  But it was for the best, as far as Rose was concerned.  No one needed to be reminded of the horror of it all. 

“And you don’t blame me?” she asked timidly, afraid of his answer. “For doing that to Jack?”  She certainly blamed herself.

“We all make mistakes,” he answered solemnly.  “Hell, you should see the list of mine!  But Martha’s right…Jack has Ianto now, and they have eternity.”  Then he grinned.  “That afterparty was the most fun I’d had in ages.”

“I don’t understand though,” Rose said, “how can Jack and Ianto have eternity together?  I mean, Ianto’s just as mortal as everyone else, right?”

That earned her a sly grin from Martha.  “Well, let’s just say Ianto’s nickname during that Year was extremely accurate.”

Rose’s eyes widened in shock.  “Are you saying…?”

Clint shushed her.  “Not everyone knows.”  Then he mock-glared at Martha.  “I’m not sure that should have been shared, _Nightingale_.”

“I don’t think they’ll mind Rose knowing, _Hawkeye_ ,” the woman sassed back.  “Jack has always thought of Rose as his sister, and I think Ianto would want to personally thank her for bringing Jack into his life.”

Rose’s mind was spinning.  Ianto Jones on this world wasn’t human?  He was a dragon?  How did that work?  And how did the Jones on that alternate world end up being normal while this one was so very different?

“I think you broke her,” Clint teased. 

“You okay?” Martha asked worriedly.

“I…”  Rose was boggling at the information dump she’d brought on herself.  “I know a Ianto Jones on that other Earth I’ve been living on, and he’s human!”

“From what I understand,” Martha said, “there are a lot of different Ianto Joneses out there in a lot of different universes.  Most of them are human, but there are some who are different.  Jack once told me that they ran into one that was actually the son of the TARDIS, of all things.”

Rose laughed.  She couldn’t help herself.  Just when she thought she might just understand the nature of things, her perceptions get tossed on their heads.  It made her wonder if there were worlds out there where she was still the Bad Wolf…

Then she considered, “But that doesn’t really explain why the Doctor is so angry with Jack.  Sure, I get that he thinks Jack is somehow wrong in the universe, but certainly that wouldn’t make the Doctor so mad…”

 

 


	46. Chapter 46

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second chapter :)

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_London_ **

****

And so, Martha finished the story. 

At the end of it, Rose couldn’t decide just how she should feel about it.

Certainly, she could understand the Doctor not wanting to be the last Time Lord in existence.  Rose knew just how lonely he was; it was obvious to everyone who looked close enough.

At the same time, the Master had caused untold damage and had tortured Jack for an entire year.  He’d almost succeeded in destroying the universe.  There should have been some sort of justice involved.

But had Ianto had the right to kill the Master in cold blood?  He’d done it in Jack’s name, as an act of vengeance against the monster who’d killed the man he loved, over and over again.  But did that make it right?

Would Rose have gone along with it if she’d been there? After all, the Master had also done terrible things to the Doctor as well.  Did she love him enough to strike back, when it seemed as if the Master wasn’t going to be punished for his crimes beyond imprisoning him within the TARDIS?  Would that have even been a punishment at all?

Plus, how had the TARDIS even felt about almost having a lunatic living within her walls?

It hadn’t happened to her, so there was no way of knowing how she would have reacted.  However, she could understand why the Doctor was so very angry at Jack.  One of the things the Doctor didn’t like was killing, and Ianto had done just that, with Jack backing him on it.  If she was any judge, Martha hadn’t exactly been against it, either.  Rose felt she couldn’t judge, not having been a witness to that year of sheer hell. 

She also couldn’t see any way to get them back together, either.

“You see now?” Martha asked.  “You see why it’s pretty much impossible to fix this?”

“I kinda wish I’d been there,” Clint mused. “I certainly wouldn’t have minded putting an arrow through that bastard’s eye.”

Martha reach over and slapped him in the arm.  “Clint Barton!  You did not just wish that!” she berated him sternly. 

“Okay, maybe not,” he allowed.  “My life’s been hard enough without having to deal with power-mad aliens out for world domination.”  Then paused, shaking his head.  “Aw, Daleks…no.”

Martha snorted in laughter.  “You didn’t get away so easily, did you?”

“Guess not!”

Rose couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled up at their banter.  She could so easily see herself slotted into this new family that Jack seemed to have made for himself.  Maybe, one day, she might be able to come to Cardiff and visit. 

She was beginning to realise that the schism between the Doctor and Jack was something that wasn’t going to be healed overnight. 

“Did you miss me?”

Rose jumped at Jack’s jaunty greeting.  He suddenly appeared just behind Clint, grinning at her.  “Are you three talking about me?” he asked playfully.  “It better be good!”

He seemed to be happy, but there were shadows in his blue eyes that Rose didn’t like to see.  She moved around Clint and wrapped Jack up into the biggest hug she could, the long-forgotten scent of his pheromones settling around her like the smell of coming home.

Jack’s arms went around her, and his nose was buried in her hair. “I have missed you something fierce,” he admitted quietly as they clung to each other.  “When I thought you’d been killed at Canary Wharf…”

“I missed you too,” she admitted, finally letting her tears fall onto the wool of that ridiculous coat.  This was her best friend, her brother…the one she’d wielded the Vortex for in order to bring him back to her, but had messed up so badly she’d made him immortal.  Why didn’t he hate her for it? 

“I could never hate you,” he answered, and Rose felt herself blush for saying that out loud.  “You loved me, and that brought me back to life.  Thank you for that, Rose Tyler.”  His arms tightened once more, and then he released her, it feeling somewhat reluctant.

She looked up into his eyes.  He’d been crying as well, judging from the wetness on his cheeks.  “Thanks for that, Jack.  I feel so guilty now that I know what I did to you…”

“Hey,” he said, drying her tears with his thumb, “there’s no need for that.  It led me to my mate.”  He grinned.  “I can’t wait for you to meet him.”

Rose grinned, her heart swelling at the idea of Jack wanting her to meet his lover.  “Well, someone has to give him the shovel talk…”

That earned her a carefree laugh from her friend.  “I’m sure you’ll have him quaking in his boots in no time.” 

“I hope you don’t mind,” Martha spoke up, “but I told her about Ianto.”

Jack’s smile turned gentle.  “No, it’s fine.  Although I wish I could have done it myself…”  He revealed his wrist strap, flipping it open and pressing a button.  An image projected from it, hovering in mid-air above Jack’s arm.

It was a green dragon, sitting on the ground, heavily muscled legs curled up under his body and wings folded against his back.  His cat-like blue eyes were staring out of the hologram, crinkled slightly with laughter, caught in the middle of a happiness that shone from every part of him.

“That’s Ianto,” he said proudly, “in his dragon form.  He looks like a devastatingly gorgeous Welshman in his human form.”  The expression on his face was tender as he regarded the image.  “I wish you could have been at our mating.  He would have loved to have had you there as part of my family.”  He pushed another button, and the dragon faded out, replaced by a woman with brown hair and a blond boy.  “This is our daughter Alice; and our grandson, Steven.  Well, they’re my blood relatives, but they’ve both adopted Ianto.  Alice even calls him Tad.” 

Rose couldn’t believe that Jack had an entire family now.  When she’d known him, he’d been an unabashed flirt and not at all hesitant to seduce anyone that might have crossed their path, human or alien.  To know that he was so happily settled…it was like she was seeing an entirely different person.

It was a person she couldn’t wait to get to know much better.

He turned off the wrist strap.  “I am sorry, but we really do need to head out.  I need to get back to Ianto…as a dragon he’s connected to the Earth, and what the Daleks did to it affected him, as well as one of our teammates, Toshiko.”

“Are they going to be okay?” Clint wanted to know.

Jack nodded.  “Owen seems to think they’ll recover, but it’s going to take some time.  I don’t know anything much about Alice, Kathy, or Rhiannon, but before he was completely incapacitated Ianto had sent out Rhys, Patrick, and Deborah to at least check on Alice and Kathy.  I’ll call out to Ddraig Llyn and speak to Johnny when we get a chance, to see about Rhiannon.”

Rose was confused by all the names that had just been thrown around, but as much as she wanted to sit Jack down and reminisce, she did understand that he’d want to get back to his team.  “You should go,” she encouraged him. “We’ll get all caught up later.”

He hugged her once more.  “When you get to Cardiff, come to the Mermaid Quay Tourist Office at the Millennium Centre, and speak to Deborah.  Tell her who you are and she’ll let you into the Hub.”  He pulled back, leaving his hands on her shoulders. “Don’t be a stranger, Rose.  I’ll be expecting you.”

“Count on it.” 

“I’ll go with you,” Martha said.  “You and Clint can come home with me, and then we’ll get you back to Cardiff.”

“Sounds like a plan, Nightingale.”  He winked at Rose, and then he, Clint, and Martha were gone out through the open doors, leaving Rose to miss them already.

 


	47. Chapter 47

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I'm ready to start posting something else, so I'm going to try to get the rest of this up today...

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_London_ **

 

Jack felt a bit lighter as he, Clint, and Martha had exited the TARDIS, most likely for the final time.

There had been a time when leaving her would have made him sad, but this felt right.  Jack could sense the time machine bidding him goodbye as he stepped through her doors, her sadness touching his mind, missing him already.  The TARDIS had always been his friend, even when being with her had caused him so much pain, but then Jack had long ago forgiven her for anything she’d done.

He’d also forgiven the Doctor, but that didn’t make the lack of trust on the Time Lord’s part any less painful.

The moment he was outside, the Doctor – the one in the brown suit, the primary one, and not the blue-suited one who was still lurking somewhere inside the TARDIS – grabbed his wrist and, in a quick set of movements completely disabled his Vortex Manipulator once and for all.  Jack wanted to argue about it; he wanted the Doctor to see him as someone who could be trusted with its teleport and time travel functions once more, but in his heart of hearts Jack knew that was never going to happen.  It wasn’t going to do a damned bit of good, and so he kept silent, although he could tell both Martha and Clint were bothered by the manhandling. 

Instead, Jack shifted the strap of the big gun he’d collected once more a bit farther onto his shoulder, not wanting to leave it behind.  Clint had also picked up his bow and quiver, and despite the jeans and jacket he was wearing managed to look like something out of a period drama, standing alert under one of the trees that were in the park that the TARDIS had materialised in.  The place was deserted, which wasn’t surprising considering what the planet had just gone though.

Martha also didn’t have the Indigo device.  Jack assumed, since she hadn’t had it with her on the Crucible, that it had gotten left behind in whatever control room she’d been in.  It was a shame, because it would have gotten them back to Cardiff that much faster…if the Doctor wouldn’t have disabled it as well. 

The Doctor didn’t say anything to Jack; instead, he turned to Martha.  “Get rid of that Osterhagen thing, alright?”

Martha nodded.  “I’m sure between Jack and I we can get UNIT to dismantle it.”

Jack must have missed that part, so he turned to Martha and did his best impression of Ianto’s inquisitive eyebrow. 

“Doomsday weapon UNIT came up with,” she answered the unspoken question.  “I’ll give you a full debrief once we get back to Mum and Dad’s.”

“Wait,” Clint butted in, “there’s a doomsday weapon out there?  I might have to just mention that to Director Fury during my report to him.  He hates things that might actually blow up the planet.”

The Doctor frowned.  “You’re not Torchwood?”

“Nope,” the archer answered.

“Not for lack of trying,” Jack added. He was still hopeful that, someday, he’d get a hold of the agent for his team.

“I’m SHIELD,” Clint went on, as if Jack hadn’t interrupted.  “Oh, right…you didn’t know. Your double does, but then he has some bits of me that I’d rather he didn’t.”

“Should Agent Coulson be jealous?” Jack teased.

“Not hardly!  Besides, he’ll only love me more if Donna decides to use that card I slipped her.  I think she’d give Coulson a run for his money if she ever chose to give up time travelling and come to work for SHIELD.”

“Now, that’s not fair,” Jack groused.  “I was planning on trying to get her for Torchwood!”

“You snooze, you lose, boss-man.”

“Okay,” Martha corrected, failing to stifle her laughter, “then between me, Jack, and Director Fury, we shouldn’t have any trouble getting the Osterhagen Project shut down.  I was going to go to Jack about this anyway, and having SHIELD onside makes it even better.”

Jack could tell the Doctor wasn’t happy, and figured that was their cue to leave.  He took Martha’s hand in his, and tugged her forward.  “You know, that job with Torchwood is still open, and if UNIT’s going to decide to pull that sort of shit you might think about changing jobs.  Besides, I don’t like you that far away from home anymore.”

Martha allowed herself to be pulled away.  In fact, she held her free hand out to Clint, who took it with a grin.  “I’ll need to stay there a while longer, Jack, to make sure that the Osterhagen Project is completely shut down.  There’s also a UNIT officer in China that you might want to think about hiring…”

“Oi!” a shout had them all turn around.

Mickey was running toward them.  Jack was surprised.  “I thought you’d be heading back to that alternate dimension,” he commented as the other man joined them.

Mickey shrugged.  “No reason to stay.  I’d done everything there I’d set out to, and the reason I was there in the first place is gone.  So, might as well start over again here.  It’s not like I haven’t done that sort of thing before.”

“You’ll have a place at Torchwood whenever you want it,” Jack offered.  “We’d be proud to have you.”

A lot had happened to Mickey in that other dimension; Jack could tell.  Gone was the lovesick idiot that had followed Rose around like a puppy.  This was a brand-new Mickey Smith, and if Jack was any judge of character – alright, he doubted a couple of the hiring choices he’d made without Ianto, but he just knew that his mate would agree with him that Mickey was too good to just let go. 

“I think I wanna see the world a bit first,” Mickey answered.  “Get my feet under me again.”

“Then we can help with that.  I have someone who makes the best new identities ever, since you were declared dead at Canary Wharf.”  It would give Ianto something to do while he was recovering, because Jack knew from experience that a bored dragon was a surly dragon, and the last thing he wanted was Ianto to be bored.  “Then, if you decide you want to work with us, a position will be open for you.”

“I like that idea.”  Mickey paused.  “I’d like to go and collect the gun I had to get rid of, though.  Really hate to leave that beauty behind, besides it wouldn’t do for it to fall into the wrong hands, it being made to take down Cybermen and all.”

Jack laughed.  “I think we can arrange that, if you can remember where you left it.”

“I think the question,” Martha pointed out, “is if we’re going to be able to find a cab.”

The street was empty except for abandoned cars, so she might have had a point.

 

 


	48. Chapter 48

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_London_ **

**_The TARDIS_ **

****

Somehow, Rose had missed Mickey leaving. 

“He’s going to stay here,” her Mum answered her unspoken question.  “Says there’s nothing left for him back on the other Earth now.”  She stood there, arms crossed, her dark eyes sad.  Rose knew that Jackie was going to miss Mickey; they’d gotten so close after they’d all been trapped on the other world, there were times when Rose was convinced that she thought of Mickey as another son.  Rose had had an unsettled feeling of jealousy when she first realised it, but it hadn’t lasted long, knowing that she’d be leaving her Mum as soon as the Dimension Cannon had got up and running and then she’d need someone to rely on that wasn’t her other-dimensional father copy.

But Mickey had left.  He was going to remain on this side of the dimensional wall, away from everything he’d built.  Rose didn’t understand it.  Why would he choose to do that?  He was a hero and well-known and he’d had family back there.

And yet, he’d gone, apparently with Jack and the others. 

It bothered her.  She’d been counting on Mickey to be there for her Mum while Rose was gone.  Still, she supposed this was Mickey’s homeworld, too, after all.  He’d been just as much out of his familiar place as she’d been.

Rose glanced about the console room, knowing that they’d be returning her mother to the other Earth, where she belonged now, with Pete and their son.  Truth was, she’d miss her Mum.  They’d been all there was for each other for a long time, ever since her own dad had been killed. 

But that had changed when she’d met the other Pete.  Jackie didn’t need her anymore.  Rose as free to do what she’d always wanted to do: travel with the Doctor once more.

Then, maybe someday she’d take Jack up on his offer to come and visit him in Cardiff. She was really curious to know more about his mate, the dragon version of Ianto Jones, to get to know the man who’d finally managed to get her flirty friend to settle down and gain a family.  She felt she would adore this Ianto, just because he made Jack happy.

The Doctor came back inside, shutting the doors behind him.  The Doctor that had grown out of that hand was standing off to the side of the room, near one of the arching coral struts, resembling nothing more than a schoolboy who’d been caught out at something.

Judging from the look the original Doctor was giving him, maybe he had.

Rose figured it was because the new Doctor had destroyed all the Daleks on the Crucible; even though he might not have actually pulled the trigger on that fancy gun, he’d built it.  Honestly, Rose couldn’t see what the issue was.  Davros and his creations were going to obliterate every single living thing in every dimension, and had needed to be stopped.  She’d pretty much done the same thing, when she’d become the Bad Wolf and had wiped out the Dalek Empire in the far future.  Was this any different?  Rose didn’t think so. 

And yet, it seemed as if her Doctor was going to hold it against the other one, the human Doctor. 

The familiar sound of the TARDIS taking off filled the room, and the time machine shuddered as the Doctor piloted it away.  Rose stepped over to Donna, who was watching the Doctor work the console, and she was becoming more excited at being able to travel once more.

The TARDIS felt sad, though.  Rose couldn’t understand why.  They’d defeated the Daleks, moved the Earth back to where it belonged, and now was going to take her Mum back home before the dimensional walls closed once again for good.  There would be no more moving back and forth between worlds anymore, she knew the Doctor would make certain of that.  It was simply too dangerous to allow, which meant this would be the last time she’d ever see her Mum again.

Rose felt bad about that, but she was ready to move on.

She knew her mother understood, judging from what she’d been told.  It was slightly humbling to know that Jackie and Pete had done what they’d done so she would at least hope she’d get back to the Doctor one day. 

“Are you sure about this?”

Rose turned to her Mum.  Jackie had stepped up beside her, and in that moment Rose knew exactly what she was giving up by staying with the Doctor.  She would miss her, but Rose felt it was time.

“Yes,” she answered, putting her arm around Jackie’s waist one last time.  “This is what I’ve wanted for a long time.”

Jackie smiled sadly.  “I know, sweetheart, but I just needed to hear it once more.”

“I’m going to miss you, but you know I never really belonged on that other Earth.”

“No…you never _tried_ to belong.”

It struck Rose that Jackie was right.  She’s never really done anything to make that place her home.  All of her focus had been on getting back to this reality, and to the Doctor.

“You know he’s going to leave you again, right?”

Rose startled, spinning to face the human Doctor.  He was standing just behind her, hands in the pockets of his trousers, watching her as if she was about to disappear.

“What do you mean?” she challenged him angrily, her fists clenching at her sides without her even knowing she was doing it.

“He’s going to leave you back in that other dimension,” the other answered.  “He’ll want to leave me there as well, and he’ll ask you to watch out for me.”

Rose shook her head, denying what he was telling her.  After everything she’d been through…what she was giving up…there was no way the Doctor would do that to her!

It must have been written all over her face, because he said, “I’m him, Rose.  I know what he’s thinking.  He can’t have me travel with him…which is a bit rich, if you ask me, after what we wanted to do with the Master.”  A flash of anger lit his dark eyes, but vanished so quickly Rose wasn’t at all sure she’d even seen it at all.  “But then, I’m not a Time Lord.  I’m a human who happens to look like one.  Him, to be precise.  And I committed an act of genocide by making the zed-neutrino biological catalyser.  He won’t want me around to remind him that it happened _again_ , so I’m thinking he’ll strand me on the other side of the dimensional barrier where he won’t ever have to look at me again.”

Jackie looked as if she wanted to slap someone.  “You can stay with us,” she said.  “We might not be Time Lords, but you’re welcome with us if you want.”

The human Doctor blinked, surprised at the offer.  “Thank you, Jackie,” he said, heartfelt.  “I know I haven’t exactly been nice in the past…”

She waved the comment away.  “That’s in the past.  I figure you’re just as much a victim here as anyone else.  You didn’t ask to be born…well, I guess none of us do, but it must be worse for you.  You’re only about an hour old, really, and you’ve had to go out fighting.  Maybe you should find out who you really want to be from now on.”

He looked as if he wanted to cry, but he nodded gratefully. 

“Besides,” she teased, “we could always use another babysitter.”

The human Doctor cocked his head, curious.

“Pete and I had a baby boy, you know.”

“I didn’t,” he admitted.  His posture was gradually relaxing under Jackie’s words.  “What’s his name?”

It was a very Mum thing to do, really.

“Doctor.”

The human Doctor’s eyes went wide with pleased surprise.  “Really?”

“No, not really,” she laughed.  “His name is Tony.”

That got her a chuckle, and a head shake in response.  He didn’t seem to be at all bothered by her joking with him.

Rose wasn’t paying much attention to their conversation, though.  Her Doctor was planning on leaving her again?  After everything she’d done to get back to him?

She was unbelievably angry.  How dare he? 

Rose didn’t want to stay on that other world.  She wanted to travel in the TARDIS, with the man she loved!  Not be trapped with this man who looked like the Doctor!  Even if he’d been created to be the Doctor in every way except for the whole Time Lord thing!

“I know I’m not completely him,” the human Doctor went on, looking oddly shy.  “I’ve got bits of Donna Noble and Clint Barton in me.  But Rose…I’m mortal.  I’ll get old and someday I’ll die.  I won’t ever regenerate.  But I’m also not afraid to tell you how I feel about you.  Not like him.”  He jerked his head toward the real Doctor, who was still working at the console.  Donna had moved away from them as they’d been talking, and was watching the Time Lord with an almost stony look on her face.  “He’ll never say it.  He’ll never tell you that he loves you.  It won’t matter how long you travel with him, and one day you’ll find yourself alone again.  I won’t ever leave you, unless it’s because I die.  We can have our own family.”  He was blushing, something that Rose had never seen her Time Lord do before. 

She was stunned by what he was saying. 

For so long, all she’d wanted to do was find her Doctor.  To travel with him forever.  To…love him forever.  She’d once promised him that she would, and now he was seriously considering stranding her once more, and this time with someone who was a mere shadow of the man she wanted to be with.

How could he even think about doing something like that?

As she stood there, not saying anything, the human Doctor’s face, which had been full of hesitant hope, gradually fell.  His eyes were old and sad, and he nodded once in acceptance.  “I understand, you know,” he murmured.  “I know what it’s like to work for something you want so badly, and then be offered a consolation prize.  I don’t blame you for not wanting to be with me, when you could have…him.”  His hand fluttered helplessly out of one pocket, and then went to his side. 

The thing was, he was right.  He was absolutely right.  The Doctor – _her_ Doctor – would never once tell her that he loved her.  She might be able to be with him for her lifetime, but he’d never be able to say the same.  One day, he would regenerate, and she knew from hard experience what sort of changes that would bring.  Would he even feel the same for her if he did that?  Would it still be her Doctor?

She could remember how she’d felt when she’d thought he was going to regenerate, right after she’d found him again.  Rose had been faced with losing him for good. 

But, if this version was telling her the truth, he would never change.  He would stay the same.  He truly wanted to grow old with her.  To show her and tell her that he loved her.

It would be a choice between giving up her dream, or follow this man into a future that would be new for her. 

The thing was, though, she wanted to see Jack again.  She wanted to meet his dragon, and the family he now had.  She wanted to travel throughout time and space and have adventures she would never have back on that alternate Earth.

But Jackie had pointed out to her that she really never had given that place a chance, so caught up in getting back to the Doctor.  But her mother didn’t blame her for wanting to do it; in fact, she’d encouraged it, even though Rose hadn’t known it at the time.  Although Jackie had doubted it would ever happen, knowing that Rose would do anything to accomplish it had been enough for her and Pete to give her that goal to work toward.

Of course, the Dimension Cannon had worked once.  Yes, it had been because the Daleks had torn down the walls with their Reality Bomb.  But maybe…just maybe…

She just had to decide what she wanted to do. 

 

 


	49. Chapter 49

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_London_ **

****

They finally did find a taxi, driven by an enterprising North Londoner who double-charged them for the trip to the Jones family home.

There was the side trip to fetch Mickey’s gun…only there were two, and the cab driver didn’t even give the pair of huge, obviously high-tech, weapons a second glance.  He certainly hadn’t reacted to Jack’s, and it was even larger.

But then, Martha supposed, they’d just been through an alien invasion and there had been twenty-six planets in the sky.  A couple of large, weird-looking guns were bound to not even cause a blink.

“I’m home!” she called out as soon as she had the door open.

She hadn’t even taken two steps into the foyer before she was enveloped in a hug.

“Thank god,” Francine practically sobbed into Martha’s shoulder. 

Martha returned the embrace, looking over her Mum’s shoulder at her smiling fiancé, and the rest of her family, so very glad to finally be back.  She might have wanted to live on her own with Tom, but this really was home for her. 

Other hugs were exchanged, and Francine and Tish included Jack in them, while Her Dad, Leo, and Tom kept to simply shaking hands, although Tom got yanked into one by an overenthusiastic immortal.  Clint hovered off to the side until Francine saw him, and then he got one as well; they’d met at Jack and Ianto’s mating, and Francine, being the overbearing Mum that she tended to be, had discovered that the SHIELD agent had been an orphan and had practically adopted him as well.  If she kept this up, half of London was soon going to be an unofficial Jones.

Martha then introduced them all to Mickey, who looked just a bit shell-shocked at Francine’s rather enthusiastic greeting.  Martha figured that Mickey didn’t know it yet, but he was also about to be adopted, and it most likely would be sooner rather than later once her Mum found out that Mickey was alone in this universe.

“You all must be starving,” she said, wiping away tears from her eyes, “sit down and I’ll make something to eat.”

“Saving the world _is_ hungry work,” Jack winked.  “Although I could really use some coffee…”

He knew Francine, and knew exactly what to say to her to make her happy.  She bustled away, and Martha mouthed a silent, “thank you,” at him in gratitude.  Francine Jones needed to mother everyone, and making a meal was on that list of things that mums did for their families after a hard day of fighting off a rampaging alien horde.

Not that a lot of mothers had any sort of knowledge about such things, but then Francine Jones was a very special person in that regard.

“Everyone have a seat out in the lounge,” she directed, heading toward the kitchen.  “I’m sure you’ll want to relax after everything.”

“I have the Hub on the sub-wave,” Tom added as they all trooped into the Jones family lounge.  “I set the laptop up on the coffee table, because I knew you’d want to speak to them as soon as you could.”

Jack looked relieved, which was just how Martha felt.  He’d explained to them how badly Ianto and Tosh had reacted to the Earth being moved, and Martha was extremely worried for her friend and her Dragon despite Jack saying that Owen thought they’d be alright.  She was aware that Jack had meant to call them once they’d made it home, but this would save him from having to do it plus, it meant the rest of the family would find out just how things were back in Cardiff as well.

“Thanks Tom,” he said gratefully.  They left him the place in front of the laptop, and Martha took the seat on the sofa on Jack’s right, while Tish snuggled up on his left.  Clint leaned over the back, after tucking his bow and quiver against the wall, but within sight, next to the trio of guns they’d brought into the house. 

Martha was surprised to see Toshiko on the screen.  The technical expert looked wan and exhausted, but she was smiling as she saw Jack. 

Jack was equally glad to see her.  “My darling Toshiko!  I’d ask how you were feeling but I don’t think I need to.  How long have you been awake?”

 _“Not long,”_ she answered.  _“The Earth is still fairly unstable, and it’s going to be a while before it’s back to normal, but it’s not so bad now.  I’ll be okay.”_

“What about Ianto?” Jack wanted to know.

_“He’s still out.  Owen gave him a pretty strong dose of sedative but thinks he’ll be up and grouchy in no time.  Owen’s words, not mine.”_

Jack relaxed even more.  So did Martha, and she leaned into his side tiredly, letting him settle an arm around her shoulder.  She caught Tom’s eye; her fiancé was sitting in one of the overstuffed chairs near the telly, just out of sight of the computer’s monitor, and he didn’t seem at all upset by her being held by another man.

But then, Jack had Ianto, so there was absolutely no danger of anything untoward.  Besides, Tom knew Martha was his completely.  They’d even started planning the wedding for the fall.

“Have you heard from anyone else?” Jack asked.

At that, Owen pushed himself into view.  _“Just got off the phone with Delaware,”_ he responded.  _“He and Deborah took Alice home, picking up Steven from school on the way.  Alice is tired, and Patrick says she’s about as grouchy as a bear with a sore head, but she was fine when they left her.  She said she’d call you as soon as she got about two days’ sleep.”_

It was as if every little bit of stress that Jack had had experiencing faded out of him, Martha could tell just by the way he became pliant at her side.  “I’ll call Rhiannon – “

 _“Already done,”_ Toshiko cut in.  _“In fact, she called me. I hadn’t even fully woke up yet, so I was a bit incoherent when I answered.”_ She was chuckling, which was a good sign.  _“She’s hurting, like the rest of us.  And before you ask, I also spoke to Kathy.  Andy had to actually talk the desk sergeant on duty out of sending out for an ambulance for her, but he managed wonderfully. She also managed not to burn up her desk when she accidentally set some paperwork on fire.”_

“I wish Ianto would let me do that,” Jack sighed wistfully.

 _“Yeah,”_ Owen snarked, _“and then you’d end up on the outs with Dragon Boy, and there’s no way in hell I’m gonna want to deal with you on decaf.”_

Jack turned away from the laptop; Martha followed his gaze to Clint, who had his hand on Jack’s shoulder.  “I’m gonna check in with Coulson,” he said.  “I’ll just step outside for a sec.  Come get me when food is ready, okay?”

 _“You lot are getting food?”_ the medic sounded outraged.  _“While we’re stuck here in the Hub with whatever’s in the fridge?”_

“It’s perfectly safe to go out for something,” Jack snorted.  “The big, bad Daleks are all gone.”

_“I’m not about to leave my two patients alone.”_

_“I’m sure there’s some place that will deliver,”_ Toshiko told him.  _“This is Cardiff. The citizens were probably out and starting up for the day the moment the Daleks left.”_

Jack laughed.  “Cardiff: the capitol city of weird.”

Clint was also laughing as he stepped out of the front door, having heard what Owen had complained about.  He didn’t take his bow with him, which to Martha’s mind meant he felt safe enough now not to go about armed.

That was good.  It meant the neighbours wouldn’t be talking about the crazy man with the archery equipment out on the front lawn.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Jack promised.  “I don’t know how the trains are…”

“The stations are all closed,” Tish answered.  Martha twisted around, and saw her sister on her phone, pulling up the schedules.  “They’re anticipating re-opening in the morning.  Essential services only are supposed to be out and about; government is asking that everyone not necessary for keeping things running stay in their homes.  Oh, and supposedly there’s going to be fireworks tonight in celebration.”

“This will give me time to tell you all about the Osterhagen Project,” Martha added.  “Then we can put some sort of plan in place to get it dismantled.”

The very idea of all those bombs, waiting to be set off all over the world, was giving Martha the twitches now that she’d come so very close to having them all activated.  As soon as they were taken care of, the better she felt about it.

She knew this was going to make her place at UNIT pretty much untenable.  The only thing that might save her from a total discharge was the fact that she was absolutely certain that Colonel Mace was on her side in this, just from the fact that he’d read her into the project in the first place, knowing that she’d been a companion and how she’d once saved the world when it had been on the brink of destruction.  He had to have known she’d never go to those lengths just to keep any sort of alien race from conquering it.

Still, Martha knew it was worth it to get rid of the Osterhagen Project completely.

She was going to have to report in herself soon.  UNIT would be recalling everyone still able to work in order to help with clean-up, and Martha would be on that list.  To be honest, she wasn’t looking forward to it.  She really just wanted to stay at home with her family.

 _“Get here as soon as you can,”_ Toshiko said.  _“We’ll handle the fort until you get here.  Let us know and Deborah will come and pick you up at the station.”_

“Will do.”  He paused, and when he spoke again his tone was almost pleading. “Will you have Ianto call me when he finally wakes up?”

 _“Yeah, like it’s worth my life trying to stop him,”_ Owen groused. 

Toshiko shook her head.  _“You know we will.”_

“Then go and get something to eat.  Let me know if anything happens.  I’ll also be calling Lizzie and giving her a report on everything.”

It still tickled Martha that Jack called the Queen of England “Lizzie”.

 _“We’ll be fine Jack. Take care.”_ Owen left the range of the camera as Toshiko was speaking.  She leaned forward and pressed something on her keyboard, and the screen went dark as the sub-wave was shut down.    

Jack sighed then smiled.  “Thanks for that, Tom.”

Her fiancé held his hands up in denial.  “It wasn’t me.  The laptop turned itself on, and there was Tosh.  She was the one who called first.  I wouldn’t have known how to do it.”

“That’s my Toshiko,” he chuckled. 

The smells of bacon and coffee began wafting from the kitchen, and Martha’s stomach grumbled in response.  She hadn’t eaten since leaving the rental flat that UNIT had set up for her in New York that morning, and she was dealing with a five-hour time difference.  If the clock on her parents’ mantel was correct, that had been nearly seven hours ago.

Jack’s made the same noise in echo, and she laughed. 

It was so good to be home, among her friends and family.

 

 


	50. Chapter 50

 

**_30 April 2009_ **

**_London_ **

 

Martha poked her head outside the door to call Clint in to eat, only to find that the SHIELD agent was already on his way back in.

“How did it go?” she asked, stepping aside to let him in.

He shrugged.  “Not too bad, but Fury wants me back at the Triskelion as soon as I can get there for a full debrief.”

Martha knew that the Triskelion was SHIELD’s main office, based in Washington DC.  She frowned.  “How are you going to get there?  Everything’s pretty well grounded and will be for a couple of days at least.”

The Daleks had done a lot of damage to airports, wanting to ground everything that might have proved to be some sort of defence against them.  Heathrow had taken quite a lot of damage, but she didn’t know about Reagan International.  Being at the US capitol, it would have taken some pretty serious hits.

“There was a SHIELD team near Paris with a Quinjet,” he answered, as he followed her into the dining room.  “He’s diverting the mission to come and pick me up.  Should be here in about three hours.”

“That should give us time for me to give you the information you need to pass along to Director Fury,” she answered.

“Jack,” Clint called, spotting him at the table where the captain was sitting between Francine and Tish.  He looked up at his name.  “If you want to get back to Cardiff faster, Directory Fury said we can give you a lift in the Quinjet he’s sending for me.”

The relief and gratitude on Jack’s face made Martha’s heart ache.  “I’d appreciate that.  Give the director my regards, and let him know I’ll contact him for a debriefing as soon as I can.”

“No problem.”  Clint took an empty seat next to Leo.  “Now, can someone pass me the bacon?  I’m starving!”

 

********** 

 

Martha wasn’t at all sure that the Quinjet landing in her parents’ front yard was such a good thing.

Still, she could always have her Mum tell the neighbours it was from UNIT.  Most of them were aware that she worked for them, so it would work.

And then she saw the stylised SHIELD eagle on the side, and figured it was a lost cause.

The woman who came down the ramp wore a tight, black cat suit, guns on each hip, and had vibrant red hair. She moved with almost dancer-like grace, and Martha could tell immediately that she was one of the most dangerous people she would ever meet.

“Tasha!” Clint called out.  He was hugging her before Martha had even registered his moving from her side.  “I didn’t know it was you in Paris!”

“I hear you got stuck in the middle of this mess,” the woman teased.  She wasn’t smiling, but Martha could tell she was amused. She pulled back, shaking her head.  “I’m surprised Coulson lets you out without a leash anymore.”

“Aw, don’t be harsh like that,” Clint whined.  “C’mon and meet the gang, and I’ll grab my bow at the same time.”

He linked his arm through hers, practically dragging her toward the porch and where Martha stood, feeling a bit out of her depth despite all of her experience.  She thought it was the whole, ‘high-tech plane parked on the front lawn’, thing.

“Doctor Martha Jones,” Clint said, stopping in front of her and bouncing on the balls of his feet in excitement, “this is Agent Natasha Romanov, my best friend and platonic soulmate.  Tasha, this is Martha Jones.  She’s with UNIT and is a really good friend of mine as well.”

Martha couldn’t help but grin.  She extended her hand.  “Nice to meet you.  Of course, Clint hasn’t said much about you at all.”

Agent Romanov accepted the hand shake.  “Same to you, Dr Jones.  Although I do know he met you in Geneva, during something he can’t talk about.”  She spoke that brand of perfect American accent that meant that it wasn’t her first language, although not a lot of people would have noticed. 

“Come on in,” she invited.  “Any friend of Clint’s…”

“Even one with a different security clearance?”

Martha laughed.  “We’re really good at keeping secrets around here, so don’t worry about hearing something you shouldn’t.”

Clint did the introductions, and to Martha’s disbelief Jack completely failed to flirt with the agent.  Actually, he seemed to respect her, which told Martha that he knew something about her that she didn’t. But then, Jack’s clearance was just about the highest a person could get anywhere in the world, and if Agent Romanov was known to Clint, then she would have been willing to bet that she’d shown up in the background check that Torchwood did on everyone even vaguely associated with that organisation. 

In just a few minutes, Jack and Clint were saying their goodbyes and were climbing aboard the Quinjet, along with Agent Romanov.  Martha stood on the lawn with her family, Tom’s arm wrapped around her, as the aircraft lifted off vertically, wind from the powerful engines flattening her Mum’s shrubs. 

Martha took a deep breath as the Quinjet vanished toward Cardiff.  She glanced up at Tom, who had his free hand over his eyes and was looking up into the sky, as if he was still trying to watch the Quinjet fly off. 

There was a rumble of thunder.  Martha tugged on the arm that was around her, and he went with her before even thinking about letting go.

The next several months were going to be difficult.  Martha understood that.  But she wasn’t going to leave Great Britain again if she could help it. 

Unless it was for her honeymoon, of course.  She and Tom still hadn’t decided where they were going.

But that was in the future.  For now, she was home. 

It began to rain as they made their way back into the house. 

 

 


	51. Chapter 51

 

**_1 May 2009_ **

**_Epilogue One – Tony Stark_ **

**_New York_ **

****

“I am sorry,” JARVIS replied, sounding disappointed in himself, “but I am unable to regain access to the unknown mainframe I discovered.”

Tony reared his chair back, the front legs leaving the floor.  His feet rested on his workbench, a pencil twirling between his dextrous fingers.  He didn’t actually use pencils in his work, but for some reason that one had been in his workbench drawer, and he’d been absently playing with it all day.

“It’s fine, J,” he answered, leaning his head against the back of the chair.  It really wasn’t, but at the same time it wasn’t JARVIS’s fault that he hadn’t been able to get into the system he’d back traced the Dalek information that SHIELD had passed along.

The Daleks had left abruptly, and then the planet had been unceremoniously put back where it had belonged.  He hadn’t even had a chance to test a couple of the ideas he’d come up with based on that research, but he’d keep working on things.  After all, Agent Coulson had been polite about it, and had provided such interesting information.

Tony had been a bit surprised that there hadn’t been any sort of instability in the solar system from the planet being snatched away, but then he wasn’t that sort of scientist and didn’t have quite the interest in it.  If he’d felt up to it, he could have done some basic research into astrophysics and celestial systems, but it wasn’t worth his time at the moment.

No, he was far more interested in whoever had created the seemingly impenetrable mainframe at the other end of that information SHIELD had passed onto him.

Whoever it was, had intimate knowledge of an alien race that no one seemed to have gone up against before.  The only mentions of the Daleks on the internet had been on the wildest of conspiracy sites.  Tony had particularly enjoyed the ones where this weirdo alien called a Time Lord had been involved with sending the Daleks packing back in the 70’s.  Beyond unfounded rumour and boundless imagination, both he and JARVIS had batted a big, fat, goose egg.

It wasn’t going to stop him, however.

And, from the little that JARVIS had been able to discover, Tony figured he’d be taking a trip to Cardiff, Wales, coming up soon.

 


	52. Chapter 52

 

**_2 May 2009_ **

**_Epilogue Two – The Triskelion_ **

**_Washington, DC_ **

****

Clint stood at attention…well, what passed for attention for him, at least, with his feet shoulder-width apart and his hands clasped behind his back.  He was utterly relaxed though, for as much as he gave off waves of being prepared for anything.

That was, in Clint’s opinion, one of his superpowers…to look like he’d go for your throat even though he as completely chilled the fuck out.

The debrief had gone pretty much as he’d thought it would.  He told his story, leaving almost nothing out.  Well, there were a few things, like Ianto being a dragon and Jack being immortal – although he wasn’t so sure that Fury didn’t already know that bit. 

None of what he said to Fury and Coulson was written down, or even recorded.  That was their deal: he’d tell them what he could about Torchwood, and nothing would be left physically in a file for some bland paper pusher to read.  There were even some things he couldn’t say in front of Coulson, which was a shame, because he trusted his lover with his life, and Phillip J. Coulson was one of the canniest people on the face of the planet.

Director Fury sat at his desk, fingers steepled in front of his face, as he took Clint’s verbal report, the city of Washington DC visible through the window behind him, rain pattering hard against the bulletproof glass.  Clint had always wondered just how uncomfortable the director felt with his back to the city, even if the glass was well-nigh impenetrable.  He had to have felt totally exposed, and yet he wasn’t giving off any sort of tells.

But then, the Director of SHIELD had always been a badass.

Coulson himself was a comforting presence at Clint’s six.  He could just make him out in the reflection in the window, leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest.  He hadn’t said anything the entire time Clint had been speaking, but then that wasn’t anything unusual.  If he had any questions he’d bring them up afterward.

When he got to the part about the Osterhagen Project though, Fury let out some of his favourite curse words.  It really was impressive.

“Did Harkness have any sort of plan in place to disassemble the project?” Coulson finally spoke up, his voice smooth in Clint’s ear. He stepped up beside Clint, regarding him closely.  He might have appeared his normal, bland self but he was aware of his lover’s tells, and he could see that Phil was bothered by the whole being blown up thing.

“He was going to talk to Her Majesty,” Clint answered, “and then he thought you might want to be on the ground floor of that particular mission, sir.”

“Damn right,” Fury growled.  “UNIT’s getting a bit too big for its britches.  It’s about time we took it down a few pegs.”  He rolled his one good eye.  “Really?  Destroying the planet just because things get bad?  I really want to know whose brilliant idea _that_ was.”

So did Clint.  He really wished he could be a witness to that ass whooping.  It was going to be _epic_.

“We’re going to need to know where all those bombs came from,” Coulson mused.  “I would like to know exactly when UNIT became a nuclear superpower.”

“Another good question,” Fury agreed.  He leaned back in his chair, the leather creaking under his weight.  “It’s gonna be a busy few months until this shit’s been cleaned up, that’s for sure.  I’m also thinking it’s time for us to have closer ties to Torchwood.  They seem to know what they’re doing.”

Clint silently agreed.  While it had been up to the Doctor Double in the end to stop the Daleks, Torchwood had had the information on the Daleks and had done their damnedest to help out.  “Oh,” he spoke up, “I just remembered…Second Jones wanted to me request that we’re more careful about disseminating information that came from them, sir.  Apparently, Stark’s A.I. was able to back trace what they sent you on the Daleks.  There was a visit from JARVIS just when things were getting interesting.” He’d gotten a bit of an earful when they’d dropped Jack off; but then, Ianto had really been grumpy when he’d met the Quinjet on the Plass, since he was still recovering and all. 

Coulson sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.  “Patrick said the same thing when he called me after everything was said and done.”

“Damnit, Coulson,” Fury swore.  “I knew it had been a bad idea to share that shit with Stark.”

“He was going to go and face the Daleks,” Coulson pointed out, “and he would have gotten himself killed…or worse, the Daleks could have ended up with the Iron Man armour.  And the only way to stop him from doing something stupid was to let him know what he was up against and to give him something to do to keep him busy.”

“I take it Sato was able to fend off JARVIS’ attempts at hacking?” Fury asked.

“Yes sir, she was.”  He didn’t add that, according to Ianto, Toshiko had been incapacitated at the time, and that it was lucky that JARVIS has announced himself and that the dragon had taken measures.  “Although you know Stark’s not gonna stop now that he knows there’s someone out there more secretive than us.”

“You warn Harkness?”

“Yes, sir.”  Toshiko would be ready if JARVIS managed to somehow get in again.

“Good.”

Fury was looking at him, that one dark, hard eye pinning him in place…not that Clint was about to move without permission.  He suddenly wanted to fidget, but centred himself, returning that gaze with one of his own.

It wasn’t a staring contest.  Hell, Clint new better.  He simply waited, knowing that Fury had something else on his mind and would share it when he was ready.

Finally, the director leaned forward once more.  “You sure about this, Coulson?”

“I want him, Director.”

Clint barely held his tongue at that, only because there was a time and a place for the innuendo _that_ particular comment inspired.

“He’s just been through an alien invasion,” Coulson went on.  “According to Director Harkness, he was essential in eventually stopping the Daleks.  I want someone who can handle himself in a crisis like that.”

“Alright,” Fury agreed.  “He’s in.”

“Excuse me,” Clint butted in, “but I’m still in the room, you know.”

Fury snorted.  “Yeah, his smart ass is all yours, Coulson.  And I don’t mean in the way it already is, which I don’t want to know about _at_ _all_.”

Coulson actually smirked. 

Fury shook his head, giving a put-upon sigh.  “Agent Barton, let me tell you about the Avengers Initiative…”

 

 


	53. Chapter 53

 

**_20 May 2009_ **

**_Epilogue Three – Torchwood Hub_ **

**_Cardiff_ **

****

_“Jack,”_ Deborah’s voice sounded over the comm, _“there’s a woman up here to see you.  Says her name is Donna Noble.”_

Jack stopped in mid-stride, shock causing him to stumble a bit. 

It hadn’t taken them long to clean up the Tourist Office after the Daleks had trashed it.  The secret door leading into the corridor to the Hub’s lift had had to have been replaced, but that had been paid for through the Welsh Tourism Board, with a judicious use of Retcon and insurance forms, which Ianto had handled with his usual efficiency. 

The hall outside the cog door would still have been a mass of rubble if not for a certain dragon digging it out.  After that, it had been repaired almost as easily.

The Retcon supply had taken a bit of a hit in the last three weeks, that was for sure.

And so had the requisition forms, because it had become apparent that having some form of explosive in the Hub had been a really good idea.  Patrick had been over the moon when the first shipment of military grade C-4 had shown up at the Tourist Office.

Even now, there were so many people calling the Stolen Earth Incident a form of chemical or biological terrorism, that there couldn’t have possibly been a bunch of different planets in the sky and that Daleks flying around and shooting things had been some sort of illusion.  It constantly amazed Jack at the ability for the human race to blind itself so willingly, but it certainly made Torchwood’s job a bit easier.

Toshiko and Rhys had had a field day with some of the conspiracy websites.

Jack had also had fun with UNIT.  Between himself, Nicholas Fury, and the Queen of England, UNIT had been brought to task for the entire Osterhagen debacle.  Her Majesty had gone right to the UN with her concerns, and the World Security Council had stepped in, ordering UNIT to dig up all their nuclear bombs and then present them for dismantling according to UN mandate.  They’d even assigned a few peacekeepers to UNIT HQ in Geneva.  All-in-all, UNIT’s reputation had taken a severe hit over the Osterhagen Project.

As it was, the _Valiant_ was never going to be rebuilt, leaving SHIELD with the only flying headquarters currently in use.

Cardiff was still rebuilding, but there had been a lot less damage done to their city than other places around the world.  It just seemed bad, as they’d still been dealing with the destruction caused by Gray and Hart’s rampage not all that long ago.  However, according to Eion in the Lord Mayor’s Office, things were proceeding apace.  He’d been quite proud of the way the Cardiff Police had responded to the crisis, and Kathy was understandably puffed up with pride for the bobbies under her command, who’d stepped up when she’d been incapacitated, and had put Andy in for a commendation.

There was going to be some sort of ceremony in a couple of weeks.  Andy had asked Deborah to be his date, and she was still considering it.  Her request for him to be patient for her to get through University before becoming serious still stood, and he was still willing to wait.

Jack thought they really had a chance to go the distance if they made it through Deborah’s education.

Everything was slowly getting back to normal…except no one had heard anything from the Great Dragons.

Rhiannon thought they might have been very badly affected by the damage done by the Daleks, and were simply recovering their strength.  She had no idea how long that would take; however, it seemed that each of the Great Dragon Friends had gained just a bit more power than they’d had before.  She believed it was a gift, to help with protecting the planet while the Great Dragons couldn’t.  Toshiko was already complaining about being able to feel the Earth rotating under her feet, and Kathy kept a fire extinguisher in her office now, just in case of accidental pyrotechnics.  Alice could predict the weather with amazing accuracy, while Rhiannon herself could walk across the lake of Ddraig Llyn without getting her feet wet.

And now, Donna had just showed up at the Tourist Office.  The last thing Jack had heard she’d still been travelling with the Doctor. 

Not that he’d heard anything about the Doctor returning to Earth.  Jack doubted he’d ever see the Time Lord again…at least, not by choice.

He found himself being a little disappointed, but at the same time not at all surprised.

He touched the comm in his ear.  “Bring her down, Deborah.”

_“We’re on our way.”_

“What is it, Jack?”

He turned, smiling at his mate.  Ianto had improved dramatically after the Earth had been returned to its orbit.  He’d awakened from his enforced nap a very pissed off dragon at Owen for sedating him, but Jack had backed the medic up on his decision.  Ianto had eventually given in to both of them, accepting that knocking him out had been the right thing to do.

Today, he was looking particularly sexy in a black three-piece bespoke suit and a deep red shirt, red and black tie completing the ensemble.  It really amazed Jack at the fashion sense the dragon had in his human form.

“Donna Noble’s visiting,” he answered. 

The dragon frowned.  “What could bring her here?”

Jack shrugged.  “Guess we’ll find out.”

To be honest, he hadn’t expected to hear from Donna at all.  If anyone, Jack had been expecting was Rose, although not quite so soon.  He really wanted her to meet Ianto, and he’d told his mate about asking her to come to see them.  Ianto had been looking forward to it, especially when Jack had claimed she was like a sister to him.

Ianto could have been against it.  After all, the reason he’d once hired Gwen Cooper was because, on first appearances, she’d reminded Jack of Rose.  Gwen hadn’t liked Ianto at all, and while the dragon had given her every chance she’d been adamant about not wanting him on the team.  Ianto could have easily held that against Rose as well, and yet he hadn’t.

Yes, Jack really did love that dragon. 

The cog door sounded, and Deborah stepped into the Hub, followed by the familiar red-headed form of Donna Noble.  She was wearing jeans and a long grey sweater that almost hung to her knees.  She looked pleased, Jack noted, as she stared around the Hub, taking everything in.

“Nice underground science fiction super-base you’ve got here,” she said approvingly.

Jack had no choice but to hug her.  “Welcome to Torchwood,” he greeted. 

Donna returned the hug.  “Good to be here, gorgeous,” she answered, pulling away just enough that her hands rested on his shoulders.  Her head moved as she got a good look around.  “This place is more impressive in person than over that sub-wave thing.”

“Come and meet the team.”  Jack ushered her forward, where the rest of his team had gathered.  “Everyone, this is Donna Noble…I’m sure you remember her.”

There was a chorus of greetings welcoming Donna to the Hub.

Jack took her around and introduced her to everyone…this time, officially.  Patrick told her that he knew Clint, and that Donna had made an impression on the archer, which made Donna laugh.  “I’m looking forward to seeing him again,” she confided.  “Now that I’m not travelling with the Doctor anymore I have the chance to do what I want to, and he did offer me a job…”

“And here I was hoping to talk you into staying,” Jack pouted, surprised that she wasn’t with the Time Lord any longer.  He wasn’t really going to attempt to poach her; even if he didn’t know about Clint’s previous ‘claim’ on her for SHIELD, Jack doubted she’d be happy working for Torchwood.  She just didn’t strike him as the type.

Of course, he could have been wrong.  But he was going to respect whatever decision she made.

“No chance,” she exclaimed.  “I’m gonna be on my way to Washington DC as soon as I deliver this.”  She reached into the back pocket of her jeans, where she pulled out a letter which she handed to Jack.

The immortal took it, and the others went on with the introductions as he saw his name scrawled across the front of the envelope. 

“So, this is Ianto,” her flirty comment drew Jack’s attention.  Donna was holding onto the dragon’s hand, and she winked at him.  “This is the guy who trusted Clint to watch your back, Jack?”

Ianto was smirking.  “I have to deal with Clint’s lover most of the time; it’s only fair he have to deal with mine.”

That had her laughing.  “Turnabout’s fair play.” She wasn’t letting go of Ianto’s hand, and Jack wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

“Oi,” Owen cut in, “you might want to let go of Ianto before Jack gets jealous.”

“I do not get jealous!” Jack denied hotly.

“Yeah, you do,” Patrick replied, grinning.

“Very jealous,” Toshiko giggled.

“I’ve never seen blue eyes go green so fast,” Rhys added, his own eyes glittering with silent laughter.

Jack huffed, but he couldn’t deny it.  He _did_ get jealous, which was hard for a 51 st century man to admit.  But a lot of his preconceived notions went out the window where a certain dragon was concerned.

Donna snorted, and finally let go.  “I was just enjoying the warm hand.”

“Warm hands,” Ianto said, “even warmer heart.”

“I like you!” 

Ianto smiled.  “Would you like some coffee?”

“I’d love some, but I can’t stay.  I just wanted to make sure that letter got delivered like I promised I would.  But trust me,” she winked, “we’ll be seeing each other again, handsome.”

“I don’t doubt that for one moment, Ms Noble.”

“Donna, please.  Ms Noble’s my Mum, and I’m not ready to be her yet.”  She then hugged Ianto, and the dragon looked surprised but then returned it.

Then she stepped away.  “I can show myself out…”

“Not at all,” Deborah said, showing her full set of dimples.  “I’ll take you back up.”

They were nearly to the cog door when Jack called out, “Donna!”

She turned, one eyebrow raised.

He held up the letter.  “Just what is this?”

“Read it and see.”

With those parting words, she was out of the door, Deborah following in her wake.

 

 


	54. Chapter 54

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here it is, the end. Next up, we take a trip into the Future-Verse for Jack's Mom's story, a trilogy of stories I've called "The Samara Wells Trilogy". First story, "A Mother's Love", will start posting tomorrow.

 

**_20 May 2009_ **

**_Epilogue Four – Torchwood Hub_ **

**_Cardiff_ **

**_The Letter_ **

 

The dragon moved to stand beside Jack, and he welcomed his mate’s close proximity as he stared at the envelope.  “Do you know what it is?” he asked quietly.

Jack shook his head.  “No idea…from the Doctor, maybe?”

Even as he said it, Jack doubted that.  The Doctor wouldn’t have given him the time of day, let alone a letter. 

“I’m going to head up to my office and read it,” he said.  “Think you could get me one of those coffees you were offering Donna?”

“Well, I don’t know…she was a guest, after all…”

“I’ll make it worth your while…”

“Jack Harkness, you are such a tease,” the dragon growled.

“Only for you.”

“Jesus, they’re at it again,” Owen moaned.  “Thank god I haven’t had lunch yet ‘cause I’d be losing it about now.”

Rhys clapped the medic on the shoulder.  “You and me both, mate.”

“Get back to work, the lot of you,” Jack chuckled. 

“Go and read your letter,” Ianto urged, “and I’ll be up with that coffee in a bit.”

Jack took his mate’s advice, and headed up to his office, closing the door behind him.  He wanted a bit of privacy for this, because there really was only one person that Jack knew who would have trusted Donna to bring this to him.

He truly was surprised that Donna wasn’t with the Doctor anymore, and Jack hoped that he wasn’t alone.  The Doctor didn’t do alone all that well.  He wondered why she’d decided to move on, and made a mental reminder to ask her the next time he spoke with her.

Jack sat at his desk, slitting the envelope with the fancy opener that Toshiko had gotten him for Christmas one year.  There were two sheets of paper inside, and he could tell by the handwriting that it was written in a hurry.

 

_Dear Jack;_

_By the time you get this, I’ll be back on that alternate Earth.  I really thought I’d be staying around a bit, but after you left I was given a few things to think about, and I’m pretty sure you’ll agree with my decision to go back after you read this._

_For a really long time I wanted to come back and find the Doctor.  It was my one goal.  But then I realised that, as much as I loved the Doctor, he was never going to tell me that he loved me too.  I doubt he’d ever really show it either, to be honest.  Jack, you know how he is…all emotionally constipated, but he thinks he’s all so superior because he’s so repressed and above all that sort of bollocks (makes me wonder what his parents were like, honestly!).  And, eventually, he would have dropped me off somewhere and moved on, or he would have regenerated and changed from the man I wanted to be with and I’d left him._

_Well, the thing is, now there’s a man who’s nearly the exact same person as the Doctor, only he has one heart and won’t ever regenerate.  He’ll grow old, and he wants to do that with me.  Problem is, the Doctor doesn’t want him in the same dimension as he is…not sure why, really, but I think it’s because he doesn’t like to be faced with himself all that much.  Maybe the human version of him reminds him he can be just as cruel and cowardly as anyone else._

_You and I already know he can though, don’t we?_

_So, I came to realise it wasn’t travelling with the Doctor that I wanted…it was the Doctor himself, and the Time Lord version would never be that for me.  The human one will._

_Yeah, I’m going to miss the TARDIS.  I think she’ll miss me, too.  But this is my chance to be happy in a way I wanted all along and didn’t know I did until it was pointed out to me._

_I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you in person.  I really did want to meet the guy who settled you down, too.  Maybe someday I will.  Who knows…maybe that Dimension Cannon will work again and me and my Doctor will come by for a visit._

_I asked Donna to give this to you, whenever it was her time to leave the TARDIS.  She’s promised she would, and she strikes me as the kind of person that keeps her promises._

_Jack, you’ll never know how sorry I am for what I put you through.  I know you’re glad I did, but I also know it wasn’t all so good for you until you met Ianto.  I’ll always be sorry for it.  I just wanted you to live and I messed it all up._

_Anyway, this is goodbye for now.  Like I said, maybe someday we’ll show up on your doorstep.  Tourist Office, Mermaid Quay, right?  I didn’t even realise that your Hub must have been right under our feet that time the Rift nearly blew up!  I’m right, aren’t I?  You were right there all the time!_

_See, time is weird.  We never know what it’s going to do next._

_Have a good life, Jack.  Tell that dragon of yours to look out for you. You know you’ll make a right hash of things if you’re on your own!_

_Love you always!_

_Rose._

Jack sighed, wiping a tear away that had hung itself up on his lower eyelash.  He’d really wanted Rose to come and see him, and to introduce her to his dragon, but he did agree with her: this was the best thing she could do.

At least it was her decision.  Jack wouldn’t have been at all surprised to learn that the Doctor had planned on dumping her off right back onto that alternate Earth without giving her the choice.

The Doctor could be such an idiot, because he’d just given up the best thing that could have happened to him, simply because he couldn’t say three little words. 

Yes, Rose was going to be better off.  Jack hadn’t really had a chance to speak to that metacrisis Doctor, but if he was willing to admit the one thing that their Doctor couldn’t…then more power to her.

“You alright?”

Jack glanced up from the letter.  His mate was standing just in front of the desk, a mug of coffee in his hand, his expression concerned.

He folded the letter and set it on his blotter, mentally reminding himself to put it away in his box of memories later.  While he hoped he’d see Rose once more, with the dimensional walls sealed once more he doubted it would ever happen, and this would be the last thing of hers he would ever have.

Jack got up from his chair, and made his way around the desk to his mate.  He took the cup of coffee out of Ianto’s hand and set it down on the desk then rested his hands on the dragon’s human hips, pulling him closer. 

“I’m fine,” he admitted.  Then he reconsidered that.  “Nope, I’m better than fine.” He pressed a gentle kiss to Ianto’s lips.  “Have I told you today that I love you?”

Blue eyes deep with age and understanding met his, and Ianto smiled softly.  “You have, but I never get tired of hearing it.”

Jack promised himself then and there that he wouldn’t be like the Doctor, loving someone and never admitting it to them out of fear of loss.  Love was precious, and he would never run from it again like he once had.  It would hurt when the time came to say goodbye to his mortal family, but it would be so worth it in the end. 

But there was one person he’d have throughout all eternity, and he was standing there, in his arms, loving the immortal as much as Jack loved him. 

Silently, he wished Rose all the happiness she deserved.  And she did deserve it all, for giving him what he’d once thought of as a curse.

Because that one wish of hers, long ago and far into the future, that the man she considered her brother would live again, had brought him to a valley nearly hidden in the Welsh mountains, and to an immortal dragon who was his mate. 

The Doctor had given her up.  Jack thought that was for the best.

Rose had her happy ending.  Just as Jack had his.

 

_Fin._

 

 


End file.
